


Teenage Dream

by Secondhandpianist



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-30
Updated: 2014-11-30
Packaged: 2018-02-27 13:27:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 30,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2694740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Secondhandpianist/pseuds/Secondhandpianist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The nations have decided that it's about time they got to know the youth of this time, and get to know the generation of next leaders. They've sent all the young appearing nations to a school in the UK to integrate with the students and get to know them. During this time, relationships form and the nations find for themselves what being a teenager is really like.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Another story! Yes, I know I should be updating the ones I have, but this is based on a really good RP I do with a good friend of mine, and I really, really needed to write it out! I hope you don't mind too much!**

It was far too early in Emil's opinion, and far too English for his tastes, but he didn't really have much of a say on this, so there wasn't much point in complaining. Now he was stuck in this school in England, expected to get to know the youth of this generation and report back in a meeting.

There were several faults he saw in this plan, one being that he wasn't exactly a social butterfly and generally didn't enjoy the company of strangers, and the other that he didn't come across as particularly approachable, which meant that he wouldn't really get much of a chance to really get to know anyone.

He was sat beside the window in a uniform the school forced upon all its students, frowning. He looked outside, noting how the weather was similar to back at his home, cold and rainy. The teacher was talking about something to do with how in this new school year would be important to the rest of their lives, but Emil chose not to listen because it didn't really apply to him.

About twenty minutes into the lesson the door opened, and the Icelandic boy looked up for a moment before looking back at his book again, looking up again, a split second later realizing he knew the boy who walked into class. It was Hong Kong. He was sure of it. He had the same haircut and expression, but was wearing the same uniform as him.

"Sorry I'm late, sir." He said, not sounding sorry at all. By the looks of it, he'd probably gone to Starbucks before turning up, as he had one of the card cups in his hand that was letting of a constant stream of steam. Leon took a moment to look around and locate a seat. The only one left was by Emil. He, unlike the Icelander, knew they'd be in class together, and knew who else was attending the school at that precise moment.

He sat beside Emil, not acknowledging him much, as the point of them being there was to be incognito, and not draw attention to themselves; so they had to act like they'd never met, as they were technically transfer students from Iceland and Hong Kong. Taking out his books and pencil case, Leon started taking notes of what the teacher was saying.

It took him a moment to realize that his English was lacking since last time he had needed to use it, as he'd been away from England for a long while now, and even when he was in England's house although Arthur would say he was fluent, and he would nod, going along with it, Leon's English was only mediocre at best, in his opinion. Words with more than two syllables often tripped him up, and he found it hard to understand when people spoke too quickly or mumbled. In his opinion Chinese was so much better.

Leon looked at his book and noticed that what he'd been writing didn't make much sense. He'd left out words that he'd not caught, and put characters where he couldn't remember spellings. Usually he would use his phone to correct his English, but the school seemed to have some kind of anti-phone policy, so he was left to flounder in his inability to take good notes.

Despite the school work being just to fit in to the human society, Leon knew Yao would be more than a little annoyed at him if his work was not up to standard, so he knew he was going to have to work on it. Leon reasoned that after he'd spent some time in the country, he'd pick up the language again, after all he was 'fluent' only a few years ago.

Emil looked over at Leon's book, wondering what notes he was supposed to have been taking, as he'd just been doodling, and saw the Asian's notes. He squinted at it questioningly, wondering what half of it meant, as there were many bad spellings and occasional Chinese characters thrown in, as if it was supposed to make sense "You need some help with that?" he whispered to Leon, assuming he was struggling.

"No, I'm fine, English needs correcting..." Leon replied, looking distracted. Emil gave him a questioning look, before shaking his head and looking back at his own book. He pondered briefly whether Leon meant that  _his_  English needed correcting, or that the English language itself needed correcting. He didn't ask, instead looking at the teacher and attempting to get some use out of the lesson.

The teacher was now speaking about poetry, and the difference between similes and metaphors, which didn't really spark much of a response in the class, who all seemed bored of the topic; it reminded Emil of a world meeting, except even less relevant to him.

The lesson went past slowly, as did the next one, which happened to be history, and despite the fact it should have been interesting, it wasn't. Perhaps it was because he'd lived in that time, or because he already heard a lot about everyone's history on a regular basis. Leon looked equally bored, but continued to take his notes, hoping desperately to be able to translate them correctly when he got home.

After half a day's worth of lessons, it was finally Lunch break, and Leon decided to follow Emil, having nothing better to do with his time, and to be fair, the Icelander was pretty cute. As he did, he was sure he could feel someone's eyes on him, then remembered Mei was at this school as well and was probably watching him to see him make an idiot of himself or something. Leon thought to himself that she'd have more luck watching one of her siblings humiliate themselves if she were to watch Yong, but he assumed it must have been because the novelty would have worn off.

Leon sat beside Emil, who'd sat in a secluded grassy area with a tree, away from most of the school "Did you want something?" he asked, looking up at Leon questioningly.

"No." the Asian replied, sitting beside him and getting out the lunch box Kiku had insisted on packing for him. To his non-surprise, he had been given a selection of tasty looking sushi. He internally thanked Kiku for a nice lunch. Glancing over at Emil, he saw that the other's lunch mostly consisted of liquorice cables and a jam sandwich.

"So…" Emil began, hoping to illicit some kind of conversation and get some answers "What are you here for?" he was hoping Leon was here for the same reason he was, but perhaps he wasn't, so it was probably a good idea to ask, not only that, but he wasn't entirely certain on what he was meant to be doing anyway, something to do with getting to know the students, but in his opinion, they weren't really worth all that much of his time.

"Yao said it was to inter-interga… mix with the youth." Leon replied, slightly irritated with his English.

"Integrate?" Emil offered.

"Yeah, that one, and we look about the right age." he continued before popping some more of his lunch into his mouth. Emil nodded, finishing his sandwich. A couple of crumbs stuck to the corners of his mouth that he quickly swiped away with the back of his hand.

"You're not going to blend in with that English, you know…" Emil commented, opening his bag of liquorice and taking a bite out of one of the cables.

"It's been a while…" Leon said truthfully "and Chinese is better anyway…"

"You want help?"

"With Chinese, I don-"

"No, with English… stupid."

"Oh… do you teach?"

"Technically no, but I could help you with words you don't understand or something, I guess…" Emil realized that he knew very little about how to teach another language, and chances were he probably wouldn't be of much use.

"Maybe you help with my notes?" Leon suggested, looking at Emil, in hie eyes, fascinated by the colour and how the colour was made up of many other colours that all seemed to blend at a distance to become the purplish blue they were.

"Sure, you want to come over to mine after school?" Emil asked, thinking it could be a good place to go through his notes "Or Starbucks?" he suggested, remembering the cup of coffee that had been on the desk, filling the classroom with it's rich scent.

"Yao wants me home… you come to my house." Leon said, not realizing he'd said it as more of a command than a request or suggestion.

"Uh… sure. I'll just text Lukas." Emil got his phone out and typed out a message to Lukas

'Going to a friend's house, will be home late.'

Leon got his phone out and called Yao; he would have texted him, but he didn't like the western style phone he was given, because his wouldn't pick up signal in the UK for some reason. Had Emil known Chinese, he would've been able to understand what Leon was saying. Translated, it would have sounded something like "Hey Yao… No I'm not in trouble… No I don't need you to pick me up early… I… can…" he rolled his eyes as Yao launched into a lecture about school again "No… Can Iceland come over after school?... No… I know… I won't… I will… okay… okay…. okay… yes...yes… I will… okay...bye." he shut the phone, ending the call.

Leon looked at Emil who had been watching him on the phone with curiosity at the foreign language and what he'd been saying. Their held gaze was broken when Emil's phone vibrated in his pocket again. Both of their eyes were diverted to the Islander's trouser pocket. He pulled the phone out, only fumbling slightly and looked down at the phone, reading the message.

'Okay, but be home before 8:00PM or you'll be in trouble,

big brother xxx'

Emil rolled his eyes at the fact that not only had Lukas signed the text off, despite being the recipient of the first text, but to sign it off like that. He was tempted to text back that he wasn't going to call Lukas 'big brother' but he felt it could prove to be counterproductive and wouldn't help him "Yeah, it's cool." he said, still feeling slightly peeved at his brother, but trying to be mature and not let it show.

"Good." Leon said simply, finishing his lunch off and closing the box Kiku had given him.

"Want one?" Emil said, offering a cable of liquorice to Leon. He was hoping Leon would decline, because he didn't really want to give it away, but he felt like it would only be polite.

"Sure." He said, wanting also to be polite, but not really thinking, just trying to count all the colours that made up Emil's eyes, as there were so many. He blinked for a moment when Emil passed him a cable, forgetting for a moment that he'd just asked for one. Leon took a bite, discovering that he wasn't actually all that fond of the flavour, but he ate it all to be polite, and not insult Emil who seemed to be enjoying the cables very much, by the rate he was eating them at, and the attention he paid the sweet.

Leon wasn't sure what to do now. He'd been invited to visit Emil's home, and given food, and help for English, not only that but he'd agreed to come over later on that day. It took him a few moments to process whether Emil was hinting at anything or not. Considering he'd already taken a liking to the white haired boy, who had such colourful eyes and looked so disinterested in the world, Leon was probably bias when he came to his decision.

"Did you want to make out?" Leon asked.

"I-I'm sorry, what!?" Emil exclaimed, not sure he could quite believe his ears, his face turning a light shade of pink.

"Sorry, was my English wrong?"

"N-no! I don't think so; you were talking abou-"

"Kissing, yes." Leon interrupted, making Emil's face darken to a much fuller pink "I'm sorry, I got the signals wrong, didn't I." he said, not sounding particularly sorry at all.

"S-so you should be!" he said, not knowing where to look "I hardly even know you!"

"I am the Special Admin-Adminis- fuck… I can do this… Ad-min-is-tra-tive region of Hong Kong." he began, earning a questioning look from Emil "I'm here on business; I'm staying with Yao, Kiku, Mei and Yong. Macau is back at our home in Yao's home, keeping the house nice. Lien is… just not getting involved… Anyway, I like fest-ivals, and fireworks, and when I lived in Arthur's house, I used to annoy him with them." Leon said, hoping that would mean something "What about you?" he asked, wanting to know more about Emil.

"Well, I'm the Republic of Iceland; I'm also here on business, and uh… I'm staying with Lukas, Mathias, Tino, Berwald and Peter. I like volcanoes and I left at home because he annoys me." Emil said, not entirely sure about what he should have been saying, but thinking that what he said, didn't sound too bad.

"Hm… I have a Panda, but I left her at home, because customs didn't let me bring him… Macau is looking after him..." he said, wondering what else he should say.

"I see…"

"It is very loud in my house… which is not always a good thing… People always come in my room and want to talk to me when I'm on tumblr…" Emil's ears caught onto the last part of what Leon had said.

"You have tumblr?" he asked, amazed that he wasn't the only nation with an account.

"Yes." he said, wondering what blogs Emil followed and if they shipped any of the same ships as each other "Did you want to make out  _now?_ " Leon asked, wondering if that was enough, and that Emil was actually interested, and he wasn't just floundering in the English language for no reason.

"Uh… I… isn't this a little fast?" he said, wanting to kiss him, but feeling like perhaps it was a little early for such things "Are we even dating?"

"Do you want us to be dating?" he said, hoping the answer would be positive.

"Well…" Emil began, his face blushing again, and even his ears turning a little bit pink "Maybe… "

"Maybe?"

"Possibly…"

"Possibly?"

"Kind of…."

"Kind of?"

"... Yeah…"

"Awesome." Leon said, a genuine smile on his face. He didn't smile much at all, even if he was happy, but there was something about Emil's face that made him always want to smile. Emil's face was beetroot red by this point, but he smiled a little too.

Not particularly far away from this scene, Mei and Lili were hidden behind a bush, watching the two of them together "Oh my gosh… I've not seen him smile like that in… I don't know how long." Mei whispered to Lili who was crouched next to her.

"Wow… he looks really happy, then… I know someone like that too." Lili, said with a little, smile, kneeling beside Mei, and finding herself admiring how pretty her long dark hair was, and how pretty she was.

"Yeah… I wonder what Yao would think about this…"

"Oh no, you're not telling him, are you?"

"No, of course not, I'm just wondering."

Meanwhile, Leon and Emil were just smiling, looking eachother in the eye "125… no 127" Leon said thoughtfully.

"Huh?"

"127 colours in your eyes." Leon said, tilting his head to the side a little, as if checking from another angle that he was correct. He moved his head closer, so their noses were touching, looking into Emil's eyes, admiring them. From a distance they were like jewels, but up close, he could see all the lines and the details.

Emil took a breath, and closed his eyes, closing the gap between them, and making their lips meet. He wasn't sure of what to do, and he was hoping Leon would have more of an idea as to what to do from this point.

Leon was taken slightly aback for a moment, though he didn't let it show. He closed his eyes, leaning into the kiss a little, trying to guide Emil better. The only kissing experience Leon had was when he was too drunk to think and someone kissed him at a festival, which was entirely different to this.

Fireworks were going off in his head, and his heart was racing madly in his chest. He couldn't believe it. He moved a hand to the nape of Emil's neck, his fingers threading through his white hair, being careful at the same time not to make the kiss too deep too fast, not wanting to make Emil freak out or back out of the kiss.

Emil's face was burning red, even his ears were beetroot red. He allowed Leon to lead the kiss as he seemed to have more of an idea of what to do than he did. He just went with what Leon did, knowing it was probably inadequate, though the Asian didn't seem to mind at all, placing his other hand on his waist. Emil just kept his hands on the grass to lean on, as Leon leaned into him as they kissed, pressing himself against Emil.

Leon broke the kiss after a moment and took a deep breath, his face ever so slightly flushed "So, we're dating now?"

"Yeah… I think so…"

"I think we need to practice that…" Leon said, thinking that Emil could probably kiss much better once he learned how to better.

"I'll teach you English, and then we can… maybe." Emil said, adding the 'maybe' because he didn't want to sound too desperate, or pushy.

"Maybe?"

"Probably..."

"Probably?"

"Yeah…"

"Awesome."

It was at that moment when Mei decided to step in and do something. She stood up from the bush and marched over to the two boys "Hello, Mei." Leon greeted her in Chinese, as he prefered it "Tell Lili to come out too." he added slightly loudly in English, having worked out that they were present, but not caring all that much, as it mattered very little to them about who he was kissing

"You're psychic!" Lili stood up, giggling.

"How did you know we were there!?" Mei exclaimed, having thought for a while about that hiding place.

"Because I can just tell." he replied, reverting into Chinese. Emil just sat beside him, vaguely recognising Mei, and knowing Lili briefly from European meetings. Mei huffed, puffing her cheeks a little.

"You're so annoying, little brother!"

"I regret nothing."

"Yeah… well… I hope you choke on sushi!" he said, storming off, Lili trailing behind her.

"The joke's on her; I finished my sushi." Leon said, matter-of-factly. Emil nodded, not sure where that comment came from, because they'd been arguing in Chinese. He decided it would be better not to ask.

The bell went to show it was the end of lunch break, so the two of them stood up and filed back into the school with the rest of the students, for their next lessons.

**Okay, that's the end of this chapter! I hope you liked it! If you like this story, please give me a review, so that I know what you think!**

**Question time!**

**1\. How will Yao react to them being together?**

**2\. Will they actually get any work they need to do done?**

**3\. What will happen when they have to go back to their own countries?**

**4\. Will Leon ever master the English language?**

**5\. Did this fanfiction originate in Korea?**

**I'm really sorry about how few updates there have been, but there's been a lot going on as of recent, and I've only really just gotten back into writing. If you want to know more, I make journal posts here diary , but you don't have to look if you don't want ^_^; it's just an explaination as to why I've not been updating frequently.**


	2. After School

**Yes! This is chapter two! I** **will be continuing this story! There will be a lot of side plots to follow as well as the initial HongIce ship, and there will be a lot of drama in the coming chapters when I actually get around to writing them. *is casually writing this from the sixth from common room during a free period =u=***

At the end of the school day, both Emil and Leon were equally exhausted, and ad silently agreed to visit the local Starbucks. Glancing at Leon a few times, Emil felt the urge to hold his hand, but at the same time didn't want to seem too interested, so just kept his hands at his sides, swinging availably. As they continued to walk, their footsteps in time, Leon took Emil's hand in his own, having noticed that it had been left by his side, and surely it would be fair to hold his hand if they were kind-of-dating.

Emil blushed deeply, cursing the colour of his cheeks silently, for having become so red, just because Leon was holding his hand. As they were holding hands, the two of them could notice things a little easier. Leon could tell he was making Emil blush, just by the way his hands seemed to warm up in his own, and the way they felt just a little sweaty. Emil noticed the firmness of Leon's grip on his hand, and how smooth his skin was, which lead to him wondering what his lips were like to kiss, which made him blush deeper, cursing the colour red.

As they arrived in the Starbucks, Leon muttered something along the lines of "Jeez, I'm like… too tired for this…" in Chinese, as he didn't really feel like he wanted to converse with the barista. He knew he'd be fine once he had his coffee though.

Noticing the people, watching them holding hands like that, Emil kept his eyes off of all the people in the coffee shop, not wanting to draw more attention to himself. He looked at the menu behind the bar and decided what he was going to have before walking up to the barista and ordering "One mocha cookie crumble Frappuccino, with whipped cream, please." He said, ordering the iced drink that always looked so majestic.

The English language still not coming naturally to him as it once had, he ordered it a few times anyway "One filter." He said simply, shaking his head when they asked if he wanted milk. Coffee was better without any additions in his opinion, which apparently Emil disagrees with, as Leon saw his order.

Taking a deep breath of coffee smell, Leon brought his cup under his nose, inhaling the scent.

"Let's go?" Emil said, holding his very majestic looking Frappuccino in his left hand, leaving his right to be taken by the other. Leon took Emil's hand and walked out of the coffee shop. His other hand being warmed by his fresh coffee.

Noticing Emil taking occasional sips from his drink, Leon absentmindedly took a sip of his piping hot coffee. That was a mistake. His mouth felt like it was on fire; it was like drinking fire. He coughed and sputtered for a moment, drawing a few concerned glances from passers-by, and for Emil to stop walking and become concerned "Are you okay?" he asked, not really knowing what else to say.

"F-fine!" he said, his voice just a little hoarse "The coffee was hot…" he said, righting himself and clearing his throat a little, trying not to make it seem like a big deal. He started walking again, as if nothing happened, occasionally coughing quietly to himself; whenever he did, Emil would shoot him a concerned glance and sip his drink.

Leon continued walking his face heating up just a little, unintentionally. Emil noticed that Leon's hand had heated up a little, and his face seemed a shade pinker than before, making him smirk just a little to himself, hiding it in sipping his Frappuccino.

After a half an hour of walking, they arrived at a narrow, yet tall terraced house. This type of housing was very popular in England apparently, and the lack of space was so that people working would not have to travel far from work, so therefore, space conserving houses were good.

Opening the door, Leon called into the house "I'm home!" in Chinese, before taking his shoes off and walking to his room.

Downstairs was the living room, and the kitchen, and the dining room, that was connected with the living room. There was a small hall downstairs with a staircase that lead to the first storey which was home to Yao, Kiku and Yong's rooms, and a small bathroom. Going up another flight of stairs brought the pair to the largest rooms, but also the furthest rooms, Leon's room, and Mei's room.

Leon's room was one of the largest in the house, but he'd only been able to get it by taking a chance when they'd gotten to the house, and running all the way up the stairs to claim the top room. Mei had had the same idea, but there were two top rooms, so there was little commotion.

They walked in and despite it being a little messy, with empty instant ramen pots and cups that were either filled with tea or coffee at some point, it was relatively tidy. Yesterday's clothes were on the floor, but hastily kicked under the bed as Emil walked in "So you want me to help you with your work?"

"Yes, English needs correcting."

" _Your_ English needs correcting."

"That's what I said." Leon said, flopping onto his bed, opening his book and looking at Emil expectantly, who rolled his eyes and sat beside Leon.

"Okay… What on earth is that?"

"I didn't know the English word…"

"Didn't you grow up in his house? And… you're meant to be fluent, aren't you?"

"He is… not as good a teacher as you may think… and it's been a while, and I'm better at talking."

"Okay, well, what were you trying to say here?"

Leon paused for a minute, trying to read the words for some kind of reference "I'm… not sure…"

"Do you want to see my book?" Emil said with an exasperated sigh.

Leon nodded, hoping it would give him a few hints.

The problem was that Western languages did not come easily to Leon, especially as Arthur, although a lover of the English language, was a terrible teacher, and he learnt more from just things that people said. He could recognise words if written, but he could never remember how to write them himself, and the phonetics of the language confused him still.

Looking at Emil's book, he could recognise a fair few words that were written on the page and vaguely knew what the lesson was about "Can I just copy from your book?"

"No! That's cheating! I'll help you make your notes, like if you tell me what you want to write, and I'll give you spellings if you need them, but there's no way I'm letting you copy my work."

"Okay." After that, the two of them began the arduous process of writing up the day's work.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Yao was sat on the sofa, talking to Kiku "I don't like this, and I want you to know that." He said in Chinese, knowing Kiku understood it.

"I don't like it either. He's meant to make human friends… and that was Iceland, am I right?"

"Yes it was." Yao said testily "I don't like it. He's too young, and he needs to concentrate on his job. He's not going to make friends if he just hangs around with him…"

"You don't think they could be… y'know…"

"No, of course not! They have nothing in common, and they've only just met."

"Leon's never had a girlfriend…"

"He's never had a boyfriend either!"

"True… but… I think it's strange that he's bringing him home the day they met…"

"He's just being friendly…"

"Maybe…"

"We should check on them." Yao said, an idea coming into his head.

"Is that a good idea?" Kiku said, really not wanting to walk in on anything awkward.

"Fine, you stay here, and I'll go see what they're doing." Yao said, standing up and walking out of the room. After walking up the second flight of stairs, he burst into the room, making Emil, who had been telling Leon the spelling for the word 'interpretation' after Leon had attempted to say it several times and failed, meaning Emil had to spend a few minutes trying to guess what he meant.

"Hello, Yao, is there like something you wanted?" Leon asked, not shocked by Yao's dramatic entrance, unlike Emil who felt like he was recovering from a heart attack.

"I just… wanted to know if either of you wanted any snacks." He said, trying to sound casual.

Leon turned to Emil and asked him in English if he wanted any snacks, seeing as the conversation between himself and Yao had been in Chinese, and Emil would be lost.

"I'm fine… thanks…" Emil said slowly, his heart still pounding in his chest.

"He's fine, and I… do we have any dumplings?"

"No."

"I'm fine then."

Yao nodded and walked out of the room, feeling awkward and making his way downstairs.

"He gave me a heart attack…" Emil said, looking at Leon for some kind of apology or something of that meaning.

"He likes to be dramatic. It's in his nature." Leon said, as more of a statement than an apology. It would be very out of character for him to actually say 'sorry' to someone.

"Right…" Emil said "You want that spelling now?"

"Yes." The two of them continued to work on the notes for another hour, before it was finished.

"Well, that took long enough…"

"Do you want to make out now?" Leon asked casually.

"Uh-I yeah, sure… I guess." Emil said, almost spluttering.

"Okay." Leon turned to sit facing him, but was comfortable letting Emil make the first move, because she didn't want to seem too forward and having little experience with kissing. Emil was also going through a similar mind process, sat facing Leon, but not wanting to initiate anything in case he did something wrong.

"So…" Emil said, leaning slightly closer, and Leon reciprocating and bringing his face closer to Emil's. After a moment, they brought their faces closer to each other again, and their lips met gently. Neither of them had much experience, but it wasn't terrible.

The first kiss was short and sweet, but they continued, deepening each kiss, tilting their heads to fit better, and opening their mouths so not to bash their teeth together.

As he was kissing Emil, eyes closed, Leon wondered what he was supposed to do with his hands. Was he allowed to touch Emil? Would it be too much? Would a hand on the waist suffice? He wasn't sure, but he decided he couldn't go far wrong if he placed his hands on the other's waist.

Emil's eyes flickered open for a second when he felt Leon's hands, but he closed them again when he saw that Leon's were still closed. He'd been letting Leon lead the kiss, as he'd not been sure what to do, and the best thing seemed to be just to reciprocate how Leon was kissing, and learn from that.

Downstairs, Kiku was still uneasy "How long does it take to study? I… we should check on them again."

"It'll look weird if we check on them again; why don't you go? They're probably just playing on the Nintendo…" Yao said, getting a little tired of Kiku's worrying.

"But…" Kiku couldn't think of anything to say, so just stayed quiet.

"Why don't  _you_ go and check on them, if you're so worried?" Yao said, poking him to get up "Because you're not going to stop worrying about this until you see for yourself that they're just studying.

Kiku sighed and stood up, walking out of the room. He walked quietly up the stairs, not wanting to disturb them, and just wanting to see that they were doing as they said they were doing; it was not unlike Yao to bend the truth to fit what he preferred.

Upon getting to the top floor hallway, he peaked through the keyhole, not wanting to get involved. He gasped, seeing them and his face lit up bright red. He knew there was something happening. He looked again, out of morbid fascination of the scene, feeling embarrassed for doing so, but that not stopping him. They were definitely kissing. Not just a peck on the cheek either! They were making out! How could they be doing that so early on! How?

Kiku stood up and walked back downstairs quickly, his face bright red in a mix of embarrassment and surprise. He sat down on the sofa, beside Yao, not looking at him as he said "That was not studying…"

Yao did a double take, at what he heard "What do you mean by 'not studying'!?" he exclaimed heatedly, gaping at Kiku, noticing the colouring of his face, and the uncomfortable expression.

"They were k-kissing!" Kiku managed to say, his face darkening further into a flurry of embarrassment.

"What, you walked in and they were just kissing?" Yao asked, trying to understand.

"N-no! I didn't want to walk in in case I made a scene, so I looked through the keyhole!" he exclaimed "Stop asking; I'm very uncomfortable!"

Yao rolled his eyes and looked at him "What do we do now?"

"I-I how am I supposed to know!?"

"I don't know, but… I didn't even know he was gay…"

"Wasn't it obvious?"

"No! I thought he would be straight like Yong!" Yao argued "He didn't do anything to make me think he was gay… until now! But that's beside the point." He said, trying to figure out what to do "Oh god…"

"What?"

"I'm… going to have to give him 'the talk…' and tell him about…" Yao said despairingly, his emotions switching quickly when he realized he was going to have to do something which made him more than just a little uncomfortable. "Oh god… What if Mei starts kissing boys too? And What about Yong… actually I think he's fine…" Yao added, noting that generally he frightened girls off with his personality and habits.

"We shouldn't get caught up in that; Mei is a smart girl."

"You're right, we need to focus on the matter at hand. Leon… and why he's kissing that foreign boy." Yao said, finally. And the two of them started to formulate plans as to what to do about this whole situation they had managed to get themselves into.

Upstairs, things had escalated just a little. Thinking it more comfortable, and it was, Emil had leaned back into Leon's pillows, pulling Leon with him. Leon was straddling his lap, pressed against him, and kissing him. He broke the kiss for a moment "So, did you want me to be your boyfriend now?" he asked, looking into Emil's eyes that always seemed so interesting to him.

"Yeah, sure…" Emil said, breathily, before pulling Leon into another kiss. They were both getting used to it quickly, and were definitely improving.

Leon ran his tongue along the underside of Emil's top lip, hoping for a response of some sort. Emil opened his mouth guessing what Leon wanted, letting the other's tongue in. It was all so new, and yet it felt natural like this. Leon prodded Emil's with his own, playfully retreating his tongue into his own mouth after, like a game. Emil responded, thrusting his tongue into Leon's mouth and poking his tongue back. This seemed to begin a wrestling match, between the two of them. It lasted a few moments before Emil had to breathe, and broke the kiss breathlessly.

Both of their lips were rouged from the kissing and they took a moment to get their breath back. Leon took this as a good moment to comment on the kissing "You're definitely getting better." He said. He wasn't going to add that Emil tasted like sweets and liquorice, as he thought he would probably get slapped for that.

"Yeah?" Emil asked, glad he was improving. Leon tasted like coffee and fish to him, but it wasn't unpleasant, and he liked both things, so it wasn't something he found off putting.

"Yeah…" Leon said, kissing Emil again. He started out with small kisses, slowly going in for a few deeper ones.

Suddenly the door opened with a loud BANG that Emil was sure he could feel in his ribs. He broke the kiss in shock as he saw Yao at the door with a formidable glare, staring at Leon and himself "Leon! What are you doing!?" he shouted at Leon, in horror, and Chinese

"I'm kissing him." Leon said sitting up, still sat across the Icelander's lap.

"Why!?" he cried out, in exasperation and despair that his little boy was growing up.

"Because he needed practice, and he's cute. It's a fifty/ fifty." He said looking at Yao, his face free from anything that could even resemble remorse.

"But… when did you meet him!?"

"Probably in a wo-"

"You know what I mean, did you only start talking today!?"

"I think so, why?"

Yao made a sound of frustration and anger "Right… and is that a suitable time span to kiss someone in?"

"I don't know, probably." He said, shrugging, looking completely unbothered by Yao's lecture. Not that he really registered much emotion on his face at all. He smiled sometimes, but apart from that most things he conveyed with body language, or didn't convey at all.

Watching the argument, or discussion, Emil, as well as feeling very uncomfortable, and unable to sit up, was watching their expressions to try to figure out what was going on. Yao's face showed anger… or shock, exasperation, concern, and a thoughtfulness. Leon's… he looked. He had the straight face he always had. His voice seemed unchanged to how it was usually. Emil just assumed it would take a lot for something to actually shake him, or put expression on his face.

Yao made a noise of indignation "Fine." He said, about to walk out before turning to say "Ask your… friend if he's staying for dinner, and when he has to be home by."

"Emil," Leon said, looking down at the white haired nation "You want to stay for dinner?"

"Sure… no-one will have made me anything at home." Emil assumed, as he always insisted on making his own dinner, in an attempt to seem more grown-up.

"Okay, and what time do you need to be home at?"

"About 8PM I think…" Emil said, slightly unsurely.

"Okay." Leon turned to look at Yao again, easily interchanging languages "He says he will stay for dinner, and he needs to be home for 8PM."

"Okay." Leon turned to look at Yao again, easily interchanging languages "He says he will stay for dinner, and he needs to be home for 8PM." Leon said, waiting for the man at the door to do something.

After a moment, Leon noticed that Kiku was behind Yao, looking very flustered and like he didn't want to be there. After a moment of consideration, the two at the door walked away and went back downstairs, and from what Leon and Emil could hear, they were having a heated discussion about something.

"So, you want to keep going?" Leon asked, looking down at Emil, lying there awkwardly, not having understood any of the dialogue between Leon and Yao, and feeling like he suffered from two heart attacks in one day.

"No, not really!" he said, sounding surprised "Aren't you even a little embarrassed!?" Emil asked, with a little anger in his voice, because of how insensitive Leon was being.

"No, why would I be?" Leon said, his face not changing.

"Because we were kissing! Jeez… is this all a game to you!? Does this mean nothing?" He asked, trying to get some kind of expression from him.

"I don't get why you're upset… I don't care if they see me kissing you. It's a great way to come out to them anyway." he said, keeping his voice level. Emil had no words "It won't happen again if you don't want it to. I'll get a lock if kissing in front of my family makes you uncomfortable." Leon said, noting how worked up Emil was getting.

"That would be good, yeah…" Emil said, not knowing where to go from there.

"You want to learn some Chinese?" Leon offered, seeing as Emil had helped him so much with his English.

"Sure… I don't know how good I'll be though…" Emil said, feeling like his accent was going to let him down yet again.

"Okay, I'll start with the basics." Leon said, and so they began going through basic Chinese, that come tomorrow, Emil would probably forget half of.

Downstairs, Kiku and Yao were making dinner together. They both liked times like this, where they felt so efficient in the kitchen, and it wasn't often that they made big dinners.

"Who's eating here tonight?" Kiku enquired, wondering how many they were cooking for.

"Mei is at a friend's house… Yong is… I think he… I don't recall, but he's not home, and that leaves Myself, You, Leon and his… friend." Yao said, counting off on his fingers.

It didn't take long to cook, as they both were working together, and it cut the time down, which was good as neither of them had any intentions of making the guest late home, and therefore dinner had to be cooked at a reasonable pace to make sure.

Once it was ready, Kiku set about laying it out on the table and Yao ran up the stairs, bursting into Leon's room for the third time that day. Yet again, Emil had near to a heart attack, and Leon seemed completely un-phased. Emil thought to himself that he must have been desensitised to it if it happened this frequently.

"Dinner is ready now." Yao declared before making his way back down the stairs again.

Leon stood up and walked to the door, waiting for Emil "coming?"

Emil jumped up from the bed quickly and walked with him down the stairs, snapped out of his last heart attack.

When they got to the table, Emil couldn't believe how good the food all looked. He wanted to try everything, but there was way too much stuff to do that, so he was going to have to make a decision as to what he wanted.

The others all made haste in filling their plates with an assortment of food. Yao often got into the habit of making too much food and saving it for other days, or throwing it away, though he did that less now, as everything seemed to have gone up in price.

Leon ate his food, occasionally glancing at Emil, who finally decided on some of the things he was going to eat, but was struggling with his chopsticks.

"Do you need so-"

"No, I'm fine… I'll get this…" he said, looking determined.

"I'm sure we've got a knife and fork somewh-"

"No," he said, cutting Leon off again "I will get this…"

Leon sighed, continuing to eat his food when Emil did something… unforgivable

He speared a piece of chicken with a chopstick.

Leon kept his head down, for once embarrassed. He didn't know whether to say anything, or not say anything. He could hear Yao muttering to himself, sounding less than pleased at Emil's behavior.

"Emil…" he said quietly.

"What?"

"Don't… stab food like that… it's really, really disrespectful…" he said, trying not to draw attention to himself and Emil, anymore than he already had.

"What like that Feng thingy? And it's like bad or some bullshit to put stuff in the wrong place or something?" Leon felt like turning to dust then and there.

"Feng… thingy…" he said quietly to himself, keeping his eyes down knowing Yao must have heard.

"Yeah…" Emil said, noticing the table's eyes on him and suddenly feeling uncomfortable.

Yao took the moment of silence to announce that he was going to check on dessert and left the room, looking like he was going to lose his composure if he didn't step out very soon. Kiku followed, saying he would help; just feeling too uncomfortable with the situation unfolding in the dining room.

"Emil… can you please not… say that again… ever…" Leon said, sounding very out of character and uncomfortable. It seemed as if you could do anything but insult his culture… which seemed very odd, but then again Emil would be very offended if someone were to insult his culture, or call him Norwegian.

"Uh… sure…" Emil said, trying to get using the chopsticks to work but failing.

"Am I going to have to feed you?" Leon said, rolling his eyes.

"No… it's uh… fine…" Emil said, noticing the sudden change of mood and trying to use them.

"Okay…" Leon continued to eat, an uncomfortable silence growing between them.

"Can I… have a fork?" Emil asked finally, after over ten minutes of struggling and finally giving up.

"Yes." Leon stood up and fetched a knife and fork from a draw in the kitchen, ignoring the looks from Kiku and Yao who were not checking the dessert at all, but talking heatedly to each other.

Leon sat himself back down, passing the knife and fork to Emil, who gladly took them and started eating.

What struck Emil as odd was the fact that Leon seemed so relaxed all the time, like nothing bothered him, and like you could punch him in the face and he'd just tell you you were punching wrong, and that his nose was only a little broken. Yet, the second his culture was offended, it was how a regular person would react if you stole all their money while they were sleeping and killed your mother.

Priorities…

Yao and Kiku eventually came back in, at about the time Emil finished his main course, and so used the excuse of the fact that they needed to clear the table for dessert to disappear into the kitchen again; no doubt to gossip about what Emil was doing, and how it seemed to have an effect on Leon.

After the meal, Leon and Emil were excused and both of them retreated back into Leon's room. Flopping onto the bed, face first, Leon just lay there for a moment, before he rolled over "For future reference, Emil, Feng Shui is part of my religion, and stabbing food with chopsticks is disrespect to not only the chef, but also our ancestors."

Emil felt like someone had just stabbed him in the chest "Oh." was all he could say, quietly "I… didn't know… I'm really sorry…" Emil said, not knowing how to feel about this.

"It's fine…" Leon said, sitting up and holding his arms out "You didn't mean anything by it, and you look really sad… and I don't like it, come here."

Emil obliged and sat beside Leon, getting pulled into a hug "Sorry…" he said again, feeling like he could say it over a hundred times and it still wouldn't be enough.

"So long as you are." Leon said, leaning against him and laying half on top of him, in a hug.

After a few moments of staying there in silence Emil finally piped up "I didn't get you as a hugger…"

"Is that a problem?"

"No, I'm just saying…"

"Okay…"

The two of them stayed like that, and when Emil could hear quiet snores from Leon, he decided to let himself sleep as well.

**And so concludes this next chapter! I hope you enjoyed it! Yes I will be updating my other fics when I have time, I just had a really creative bout and needed to write some HongIce.**

**Question time!**

**1\. How did no-one notice Leon was gay until this point?**

**2\. Will Yao ever forgive Emil for being so insulting?**

**3\. Will Yong ever get a girlfriend?**

**4\. What will they do, so they can actually report back in a meeting?**

**5\. Will Mei end up kissing boys?**

**6\. Will Kiku ever get over the fact that real life relationships happen outside of doujinshis, and one day he will have to partake in one?**

**Reviews are love! If you feel like answering my silly questions, go ahead! I will update faster if I get reviews… because I'll feel like I have people waiting on me… instead of people not caring… but yeah… It always makes my day whenever I get a review, and I will always respond when I can! Even if you just say 'cool story bro...'**

 


	3. Routines

**I want to focus on this story a little while longer, before I update my others, just because I need some time to gather my ideas for them, though I pretty much know, I just have better plans for this story at the moment!**

A few hours passed as the two of them slept, snuggling close to each other peacefully; Leon letting out small snores, nuzzling his face into Emil's neck.

"It's getting late; perhaps we should remind Emil that he needs to be home soon?" Kiku suggested.

"Hm you're right; let's go up." Yao nodded, agreeing with him and standing up and starting to walk up the stairs, with Kiku in tow.

"What if they're… you know…" he said, blushing and looking at the floor.

"I'll knock before we go in." he said assertively, reaching Leon's door and knocking loudly "Leon, you're friend needs to go home!" he called through the door. After receiving no response, he cracked the door open a little, to see why he didn't reply.

Peering through the door, he saw one of the most adorable sights he'd ever seen. Emil and Leon sleeping soundly on the bed together, Leon sprawled over Emil, with his face nestled in the other's neck. Emil's hair was ruffled around the pillow, and his arms were wrapped around Leon's waist, holding him close.

"Cute…" he said quietly, walking in, leading Kiku in behind him.

"That… was unexpected…"

"You wake them up."

"Why me?"

"You have a more soothing wake up voice than I do."

"Uh…"

"Wake them up."

The Japanese man walked over to the bed quietly, gently shaking Leon's shoulder "Time to wake up, Emil has to go home now, Leon." He started. After he didn't get a response, He turned to Yao, giving him a look that said 'What do I do now?'

"I think he's still jet lagged…" Yao said, remembering that he had been the last to arrive in England, as he said he had country business to attend to before coming.

"Do I just wake the other then?" Kiku suggested, keeping his voice low.

"Yes."

"Okay." He walked to the other side of the bed, and gently shook Emil's shoulder "Emil, it's time to wake up now… You need to go home…"

"5 more minutes, Lukas…" Emil replied sleepily, before realizing he was not at home, and the person shaking him was not Lukas "I-I mean… okay… give me a minute…" He opened his eyes to see a Japanese face looking straight at him, and Yao standing across the room from him. It took him only a moment to turn bright red when he remembered that Leon was sleeping on him, and that he still was, and his family had just come in to wake them up.

Kiku nodded, drawing himself up to his usual height "Leon is very asleep, so maybe you should write a note for him…" he said, before turning around and walking out of the room with Yao.

Emil carefully slid out from beneath Leon, noticing he was definitely in a deep sleep, as he didn't stir at all as he was rolled onto the bed properly. Emil took a moment to correct his hair which was now sticking up at all angles, but he found his efforts to be fruitless, so he left it and carefully wrote Leon a note which read: 'Leon, you were sleeping when I had to go home; so yeah, I'll see you at school, Emil.'

He walked down to the door, where Yao stood to see him out "Come back soon, okay?" he said, being polite. Emil nodded sheepishly, keeping his head down and walking home.

As soon as the door closed, the Chinese man span around and marched all the way up the stairs to Leon's room, slamming the door open "LEON, WAKE UP YOU LAZY CHILD!" he yelled at the top of the voice, causing Leon to wake up with a jolt, flail for a moment, then fall of his bed.

"Good morning…" he said, looking up at Yao, his feet still having managed to stay on the bed.

"Emil went home, and if you want to sleep, you have to get ready for bed first. I also want to talk to you before you do go back to sleep." Yao could feel his face heating up already, as he knew what he was going to have to talk about.

"Can't I just sleep, and you tell me tomorrow or something?" he said, yawning and sitting up.

"No I can't! I have to tell you now."

"I only got here the day before yesterday… I'm still tired; can't this wait?" He pulled himself up to stand, his face level with Yao's.

"No. I'm talking to you now, or after you get ready for bed; you do realize it' only 19:45, don't you?"

"Jetlag…" he said, walking over to the bathroom and starting to brush his teeth. Yao nodded knowingly understanding that the journey from China to England was one that was not taken without knowing the jetlag yet to come. He himself had taken a week to get used to the time zone, but Leon had come later, due to 'country businesses'

"Your fault for leaving your work so late."

"I had no choice." He said, after spitting out his toothpaste.

"I didn't think there were any affairs to be taken care of at the moment?"

"Not for you…."

Yao rolled his eyes, wondering what on earth it could have been, but didn't question it any further. The two of them walked back to his room.

"I'm changing; leave." Leon said, picking up some pyjamas and shooing Yao out of the room.

"Fine, fine, I'm leaving." He said, walking out of the room huffily.

After a few moments, he opened the door "You wanted to talk, yes?"

"Yes, I wanted to talk." Yao began, not really knowing where he was going with this "Leon, I want to talk to you about sex." He said, taking a deep breath, because he could tell he was going to have a difficult time talking about this.

"What do you want to know?" Leon joked, smirking at Yao who was taken aback for a moment.

"I'm being serious! And if I'm right, you haven't been in a relationship before." Yao said, feeling the need to remind him of that "Unlike me, who has been in a relationship before."

"Not in a while."

"Sh-shut up! This isn't about me!" he exclaimed, his face heating up a little more.

"I think Kiku likes you; maybe you should try dating."

"I don't need your advice, and I'm not interested!"

"Don't tell me you're still not over Arthur…"

"I'm not telling you anything, stop changing the topic!"

"Because it's not ever going to work between the two of you."

"I know, now be quiet and listen. What do you know about sex already?" Yao said, already feeling uncomfortable, and hoping for some level of innocence to still be present.

"I've been around for a while, you know…." Leon said, yawning "I know how everything works."

"Right… And you know about protection?"

"Obviously."

"And about healthy relationships? Because I'm not sure you're meant to be kissing like that the day you meet; you can take your time."

"What's the point in taking time if we're both fine with it? I'm not going to force him into sex if that's what you're saying. I always ask."

"Oh like you actually have had sex before…"

"That's not the point. I asked him if I could kiss him."

"I'm glad." Yao said, not knowing how to feel about this "Don't you think it'll be difficult with the distance?"

"I can visit him; it's fine."

"If you say so." He said, glad he wouldn't have to explain anything else to him, and glad that he wasn't dating a girl, because he had a feeling that Leon would know much less about girls in that respect.

"Yes. Can I go to sleep now?"

"Sure…"

Yao walked out, closing the door after himself. He pursed his lips a little, not completely happy with how much he knew, but being around for almost 300 years, and being exposed to the media, would make him more aware, not to mention the fact that he'd had no control over the way Arthur had raised him.

Arthur… Yao shook his head. He was  _not_  still interested. He did  _not_  have any existing feelings for him. Not at all. He was completely and totally over him, or so he kept telling himself. He could get anyone he wanted, if he wanted to. He just liked being single. That was totally it. He wasn't interested. Of course not. Why on earth would he like that stupid Arthur? Arthur was rude, and stubborn, and had messy hair and an obsession with tea; he was a stay at home whose colonies left him and had no friends. Why on earth would he harbour feelings for such a man?

Yao huffed, pouring himself some tea and curling up with a book on the sofa. It was some soppy romance novel that he'd recently taken to for some reason. It wasn't like he thought Arthur's hair looked golden in the sunlight, or how they both enjoyed tea, and it wasn't like he enjoyed complaining with him, or lecturing him about things. He was so not interested. Not interested at all. So… not… interested…

The next morning, about ten minutes after the time Leon should have left for school, he was still in bed, snoring peacefully, catching up on his sleep.

"LEON, YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE FOR SCHOOL, WAKE UP WAKE UP!" Yao shouted, slamming open the door. Leon jolted awake, but didn't fall off the bed this time. He was considering starting a tally for the number of times Yao slammed the door open like that. He sat up groggily swinging his legs off of the bed.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" He asked, smoothing down his hair easily.

"Because you should be able to wake yourself up." Yao said testily. The truth was that he'd forgotten to wake Leon, until Yong had left for school, and he remembered.

"Okay…" he said, standing up and shooing Yao out "I have to like… get dressed…" he said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and closing the door. He quickly picked yesterday's clothes from the floor and put them on, not bothering to find something fresh, because he'd have to fish through his wardrobe and that would just take time.

He jogged down the stairs "I'm going to school!" he called into the house, picking up his bag which had been laid out by the door, probably by Kiku, because he could see his packed lunch in there.

"Aren't you going to have breakfast?" Yao called from the kitchen.

"No time, I'll pick something up on the way!" he called back, leaving the house. God, he was tired. He walked quickly to the closest Starbucks, not noticing Emil for a moment, before nodding at him, the English language not coming to him yet.

The barista asked for his order, but it just sounded like she was making sounds out of her mouth. He really needed to wake up "One filter." He said simply, remembering. She said a couple of other things that sounded like questions, but he just stared at her, not sure what to say, before Emil stepped in.

It took him a moment to remember what Leon had ordered last time, so he just said "One filter coffee, no sugar, no milk. His name is Leon."

"Thanks." Leon said, in Chinese, hoping that Emil would remember some of what he had been taught the night before. Emil smiled slightly at him, realizing he really must've been exhausted. It was odd that he wasn't so tired the day before, but perhaps jetlag took a little while to kick in. He didn't really know, nor did he care.

The barista smiled politely and set to making him his order. Emil figured it would be pointless talking to Leon, as he had seemed so lost when the barista had spoken to him, so he just took his hand gently, smiling a little at him, hoping that would be enough to say 'good morning'

Leon smiled back, feeling a little stupid for his failure in the English language this morning, but he was jetlagged, and only woke up about ten minutes ago, and he hadn't even had something to eat yet, or had a cup of coffee.

That reminded him. He needed breakfast. He looked at the refrigerated section, and looked at all the bagels and buns, and Paninis, not being able to read the labels, but being able to guess the contents of them through the clear wrapping. He picked out something that looked fairly nice, though he wasn't entirely sure of the contents.

He paid for it, but didn't have it toasted, as he was in a hurry, picking up his coffee and walking out with Emil. They walked quickly and wordlessly to school, sipping their drinks and Leon eating his, what turned out to be meatball and tomato Panini quickly, as he was hungry.

As they arrived at the school, it was very obvious that they were late. There was no-one in the courtyard, or queuing up outside lesson.

Leon walked into the class, towards his seat, on the other side of the room to the door, with Emil in tow "Sorry we're late…" he said in Chinese, as he felt some kind of acknowledgement would be better than none.

"What did you just call me?" the teacher exclaimed, sounding insulted, though it was obvious he didn't understand what Leon just said. Leon ignored him and sat in his seat, sipping his coffee, Emil in tow, doing similar, and keeping his head down self-consciously "I said, what did you just call me?"

"He was apologising for our lateness, sir…" Emil said quietly, hoping he would drop it.

"We speak English in England, Leon. Remember that." The teacher said warningly, continuing the lesson.

Emil sighed; Leon needed to wake up, or he was going to get himself into a lot of trouble.

During the lesson, Leon didn't even bother with English notes. He wrote whatever he could understand down in Chinese, because it would be much easier to translate, hopefully. He also copied the diagrams down, but made assumptions as to the labels.

Emil leaned over, looking at the other's work "You're going to get in trouble if you keep making notes like that…"

"I'm tired. English is hard." He said simply, finally being able to string together some sentences. He would get better as the day went on, and as he spent more time in the country, he would remember more and more of what he was taught.

"So you want my help with it later?"

"Yeah."

A short while later, the teacher began handing out worksheets, and briefly reading people's notes making little comments such as 'Good work' 'Not enough here' 'Lots missing, see me at the end' and other things like that.

The teacher came over to them, passing them the sheets and casually glancing at their books "What is this?" He asked, picking up Leon's book, looking through the previous day's bad notes and that day's Chinese notes.

"My book, sir." He said, his expression unchanged.

"What is in the book?"

"My notes, sir."

"What lesson is this?"

"… English, sir."

"What is this language?" he said, pointing at the book.

"Chinese, sir."

"Do you think that's appropriate for the lesson?"

Leon glanced at Emil who said "Is that ok for an English lesson?"

"Oh… No… I'm not English today, sir."

"Pardon?"

"He's jetlagged, sir, and English isn't his first Language, I can help him trans-"

"I don't care. If he comes into my lesson, he has to be prepared to work in my lesson and do as he's told, and if I'm correct English is not your first language either, mister Steilson, and you do not seem to have any problem understanding what I'm saying."

"I've been in this country for longer, and Western languages are harder for those who grew up with Eastern ones, sir." Emil said, still trying to defend his friend somehow.

"Well then, obviously if he's struggling, he should be put into a better class to suit his ability, and/or take on extra-curricular lessons to catch up with his classmates."

Leon looked at Emil questioningly "He used long words…" he said quietly.

"Oh, basically, because your English is kind of crap, he's going to put you in a class of stupid people, or make you go to extra classes." Emil said, trying to make it more understandable.

Leon nodded, mostly understanding him, before turning to the teacher again "I will call my father, and have him talk to you, sir."

The teacher looked slightly taken aback "You  _want_  me to talk to your parents?"

"Yes." He said, taking out his phone and calling Yao, who picked up quickly.

"Hello?"

"Hi, could you like, talk to my teacher, he's being a dick." He said, easily switching back to Chinese.

Before Yao had the chance to make some kind of reply, he was handed over to the teacher "Hello, mister Wang, is it?"

"Yes that's me, what do want?"

"Your son refuses to write in English in my lessons. Were you aware?"

"I was not…"

"Well, I'd like to tell you that it is unacceptable. Either get him help out of school, or we will take action and either put him in a lower class, and or give him extra tuition." He said, to Yao who was fuming over the phone. He couldn't believe that Leon, who was meant to have the second best education system in the world, and lived with Arthur for years was so bad at English. Then again he was very bad teacher, and Leon hadn't been very proactive in learning. He'd learned what he needed to get by and left it there.

"I understand; I promise you that I will have words with him about this."

"What language do you speak in the household, may I ask?"

"Chinese, why?"

"I was just curious."

"If you're telling me that we should be speaking English in our own house, I think you have another thing coming. We speak what we're comfortable with. If you move to China, you will not have to speak Chinese in your home."

"Th-that's not what I'm getting at."

"Good. I will see to it that his English improves. I was unaware of the problem."

"Okay."

"Anything else?"

"No, that will be all." The teacher said, handing Leon back his phone.

"So…?" Leon asked, noticing the call was still going.

"How does someone who spent half their life in England not know English!?" Yao exclaimed loudly; Leon cringed, holding the phone away from his face.

"I don't know… I do know it, but I'm tired, and he keeps using long words."

"How do you even get by in world meetings!?"

"Translation software."

"You little… I do not approve!"

"Would you like to put the phone away, mister Wang?" the teacher said, looking down at Leon.

"Kirkland, sir…" he said, switching back to English.

"Wasn't that your dad?"

"Yes."

"That's it. Out of my classroom. You're being a disruption."

Leon stood calmly from his chair, the teacher, whose name escaped him shouting in one ear, and Yao shouting in the other. He walked out of the room and into the corridor. What was he even supposed to do now? He definitely got the class's attention.

Across the corridor he saw Yong "You too?" he asked, reverting to Chinese again.

"Yeah; the teacher's stupid. He said that I have to stay out until I stop telling him about the things that originated in Korea."

"So you brought it on yourself?"

"No! Everything did originate in Korea! Anyway, why are you out of class?"

"I made notes in Chinese, because I can't be bothered with English today."

"That's just because you're jetlagged, because you came late! So unlike you, little brother~"

"Shut up, I had business to do."

They continued to converse, as the lesson rolled by. Leon liked moments like this with Yong. His more subdued moments, when the south Korean wasn't so loud and obnoxious. Then again, sometimes it was fun to mess around with him, and be stupid, but he usually had a few drinks before then.

When class finished, Emil joined Leon outside the classroom "You okay?"

Taking a moment to get back to English, Leon nodded "Yeah, I was talking to Yong."

"Isn't he kind of loud and annoying?"

"You get used to him."

Then a girl walked over to them "Hey, I'm Kayleigh." She said, chewing her gum, and giving them both a flirtatious smile.

"Hello, Kayleigh." Leon said, trying to be a little more social than Emil who just said nothing.

"I saw you having that argument with Mister Evans in class and get sent out earlier."

Emil rolled his eyes, muttering to Leon "She's flirting with you."

"Tell me someone who didn't." he said, giving her a mischievous look, before whispering back to Emil "I know."

"Well don't go leading her on."

"I know what I'm doing, Emil."

"Sure you do…"

"Well that's true, I mean it was a really bold move, y'know." She said walking closer to Leon's side.

"I don't like English anyway."

"Neither do I, I wish I was like… Japanese or something, y'know?"

"No."

"So, are you like… Korean? Japanese? Chinese?" she asked.

"I'm from Hong Kong."

"Where's that? It's in China, right?"

"It's an ind- Emil…"

"It's an independent province. So it runs itself, but it's a part of China." Emil said, feeling uncomfortable, but sensing Leon's change in mood.

"Oooh, but like, where is it in China?"

"Look at a map, Kayleigh." Leon said, walking faster, taking Emil's hand in his own.

"Well, I was only trying to be friendly!" she said, storming off in the other direction.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine."

"You okay really?"

"She didn't know where Hong Kong is… it's nothing."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"Don't lie to me." Emil said, deciding he needed to do something to cheer him up, and deciding that the thing to do would be to hug him. Leon hugged back, gladly. Onlookers stared at them, walking past, but not saying anything.

"I'm just kind of insulted, y'know?" he took a moment to think of a good metaphor "It's like she asked you if you were Swedish, or Nor- from Norway and then thought Iceland was a part of Norway."

"Yeah, I'd be pretty pissed off if someone said that." Emil said, empathising a little "I don't think I've ever seen you so… worked up about something."

"I'm not worked up." Leon squeezed Emil around the waist a little "We could make out…"

"No, not in public…" Emil said, noticing Leon's want to change the subject, and feeling too uncomfortable with pressing the topic any further.

At that moment Yong bounded up beside them "Hey, you guys coming to the party tomorrow night?"

Leon and Emil exchanged a glance "What party?"

"You weren't invited?" Yong asked, curiously. His loud nature had allowed him to mix in with his class much better than Emil and Leon who'd mostly kept themselves to themselves "You're supposed to be _talking_ to people!"

Emil sighed inwardly. This was not what he wanted to do. He wasn't a particular social person, and he was fine with that. The only reason he was here was because he was told he didn't have a choice. He didn't really want to talk to people. There was nothing he wanted more than to spend the day at home with his thoughts, knitting sweaters or something similar, yet here he was, listening to Yong and Leon talking in Chinese, feeling clueless and bored.

"I am talking to people."

"Who've you actually spoken to then?"

"The teacher, Emil and a girl just now."

"See! That's like… hardly anyone! You're so boring! You never used to be so boring! Yao says so too. He preferred you before you went and started living with Arthur."

"I know." He said briefly before walking out of the building with Emil and leaving Yong in the corridor.

"What was that about?" Emil asked cautiously.

"Nothing- it was nothing. There's a party tomorrow night, and we should go."

"I don't like parties…"

"It won't be as good as back home, but there are free drinks."

"I don't know…"

"I feel like getting drunk." He said truthfully. He really needed something to break his inhibitions. He felt like any more provocation would set him over the edge, though he preferred not to show it. Arthur had always told him that a gentleman always keeps a stiff upper lip, and shouldn't show emotion, as it is a weakness, and people could manipulate your emotions. Leon noticed however that Arthur never did seem to get the hang of his own teaching.

"You get drunk?"

"Sometimes."

"What does Yao say?"

"I'm an inde- indep…"

"Independent?"

"Yeah, so he can't say anything… most of the time."

"I see. I guess that's fair enough then…." He said, feeling awkward.

The rest of the school day dragged past painfully slowly, Emil could tell that something was bothering Leon, but he wouldn't bring it up. The second Emil tried to ask him what was wrong, Leon would change the subject, or just say he didn't want to English at the time.

**And that concludes another chapter! It's a bit slow moving, yes I know, but there is lots more to come! And as always, I'm giving you another QUESTION TIME!**

**What's bothering Leon?**

**What's going to happen about that party?**

**Will Yong ever learn a little tact?**

**Will Kayleigh ever look at that map?**

**What do you think should happen next?**

**I will reply to ever review that I can! I can't reply to guest ones though ^_^;; But it always makes my day when I get a review!**


	4. Welcome to Scandinavia

**Yet another chapter! As soon as I get to the point I want to be in this, I will go back to writing my other stories, I just want to take a break from them, while I get my head sorted out ^w^ also sorry this took so long! I've had a lot of work I've been doing recently, and I'm working on a HongIce ask blog on tumblr too! If you're wondering, it's just askhongice .com**

* * *

By the end of the school day, both Emil and Leon were exhausted. As they left the school, they'd silently agreed on visiting Starbucks before going to Emil's home. Emil still hadn't gotten used to the idea of dating, and still blushed when he felt Leon's thumb brushing over his as they walked hand in hand to the coffee shop.

Still, there was no-where he would rather be, not that he was about to say it, but he liked the companionship. There was something really comforting about having Leon around, just holding his hand, or talking to him, or kissing him. His presence was settling.

Leon felt a similar way, but was better at not showing it. As much as Emil's face made him want to smile and never stop, it would have felt somewhat unnatural. He knew how unreadable he could be, so he was often very blunt, as Emil had discovered, otherwise people never seemed to catch on to what he was thinking. Leon knew Emil understood this. He didn't need to be smiling all the time to be happy.

As they got to the shop, Emil's face heated up more. They were given a few looks by passers-by who would whisper quietly among themselves, hoping not to be heard. He looked over at Leon for a moment, but he seemed completely un-phased, and was just waiting in line, looking around the coffee shop curiously. There was some nice décor.

As they left the shop; Leon with his plain filter coffee, and Emil with his majestic Mocha cookie crumble Frappuccino, they continued to walk in silence. Leon would blow on his drink from time to time, learning his lesson from the day before, while Emil sipped his drink, thinking he was going to get brain freeze if he drank it too quickly.

Neither of them spoke a word until they reached Emil's house "So, this is my house…" he said, opening the door. They were greeted with the sight of Lukas holding Mathias's axe, scolding him for waving it around in the house.

"Awh, come on, stop being mean!" the Dane complained loudly as the teenagers walked through the door.

"I'm not being mean; you could take off someone's head." Lukas nodded at Emil and Leon at the door, while still holding the axe out of Mathias's reach.

"I wouldn't do something that stupid! Isn't that right, Ice?" Emil said nothing, just staring at both Lukas and Mathias with contempt. He could really have done without their constant… this, when he had a guest, for once.

"If you keep arguing with me you're not getting any." Lukas said, rebuffing him again and walking over the two in the doorway, extending his hand to Leon "Leon, is it?" he said, shaking the Asian's hand.

"Yeah." He said, slightly distracted by Mathias who was attempting to give Lukas puppy dog eyes, but it wasn't particularly effective, considering the Norwegian was looking the other way.

"Ignore the Dane, you'll only encourage him." He said, nodding to them again "If you two need anything, I'll be in the lounge." He said before walking off. Mathias gave them both a wink before following Lukas.

Emil rolled his eyes, "tsk… Sorry about them… my family is embarrassing."

"Why did he wink?"

"He probably thinks he's getting laid or something…" Emil said, with another exasperated sigh "My room's upstairs." He told Leon, before making his way up the staircase.

The room was relatively small, with a bed and a desk and a chest of drawers. This house wasn't permanent, so he didn't see much point in bringing much from home. The room was very tidy, however and scrupulously clean. Everything really did seem to have a place, even the packet of liquorice on his desk seemed like that was its designated place.

Leon walked in behind him, looking around the room and sitting on the bed beside him "So… English?" he asked. Emil nodded and they began to go through his work.

Downstairs, Lukas and Mathias were in the lounge watching British television. Mathias was now trying to get attention from Lukas in any way he could, which involved poking him, putting an arm around him, trying to kiss him, and eventually sulking on the rug in the middle of the room like a child.

"Come on… you can't be that angry at me… I said I was sorry!" he complained loudly, giving the Norwegian a sad look.

Lukas gave a long sigh before addressing him "Fine. What do you want to do?"

"We co-"

"Remembering you're not getting any."

"Awh… could we play Mario?" Mathias suggested.

"Only if I'm Luigi."

"Awesome!" he said, setting up the console and giving Lukas a controller.

Not that he'd say it, but Lukas did actually like the excited happy look Mathias had when he got his way, and he thought it was really cute the way Mathias sat on the floor between his knees. Something else he would never admit was how funny it was to watch him get worked up over such as silly game.

Every time he died, Mathias would give an aggravated sigh, after the panic of almost dying where he would flail his legs, desperately trying to keep Mario alive.

"Dammit! I keep dying! This is a stupid game!" he said getting up finally. Lukas could tell that Mathias's pride was hurting right now, but he didn't want to stroke the Dane's ego particularly much, so he didn't really do anything, but watch him have a minor tantrum while keeping a passive expression.

"Lukas…" he said, whining "Lukas… I'm bored…"

"I know."

"Lukas…" he said, this time holding the 's' for a little longer, sounding like a little hiss.

"What?"

"Can you change your mind?"

"I said no, Mathias."

"I know… but I'm not being annoying now…"

"I'm still saying no."

"Please…." He said, putting on his best pathetic face.

"Alright, fine, but don't think this means you'll always get your way." He said, letting the Dane celebrate as he ran upstairs. As he did, he noticed through Emil's slightly ajar door that he and Leon were kissing, and quite passionately so. Matthias grinned, his pride swelling because he thought Emil might never get lucky.

"Oh my God! Emil's gonna get laid!" he shouted excitedly.

Emil moved out of the kiss faster than a bullet, cursing his slightly ajar door.

Lukas was in the room like a shot "You're not getting laid." He said simply, looking at Emil.

"Mathias is exaggerating. We were just kissing…" he said, with more colour rising in his cheeks as he still wasn't particularly used to the idea of having a boyfriend, and much less used to the idea that his family would know.

"Just kissing? I don't think that you should be doing that at yo-"

"Lukas! Hurry up! I'll start without you~" Mathias interrupted him from up in their bedroom.

"I'm not done with you." Lukas said, stalking out of the room, his footsteps audible as he made his way to the bedroom.

"We should go downstairs…" Emil said quickly, getting up from the bed.

"Wh- oh I know why now." Leon said, the realization hitting him after a moment "What do we do down there?" he asked, standing up by Emil's side, and walking to the door, opening it for him.

Emil grimaced "Yeah… it's annoying how loud they get sometimes…" he said awkwardly, walking through the door and making his way down the stairs to the lounge "I guess we could watch a movie or something, just… don't fall asleep okay?"

"Okay." He said, following him into the lounge, looking around at the furnishings, which were reminiscent of the ones in his house. Arthur had obviously tried to make everything fair and keep the households as the same as possible to keep things simple from himself, and cost efficient too. The rug and the chairs were all the same, but there were a few things that were different, like the axe in the corner that Matthias had brought, and a few ornaments and personal belongings strewn around the room; a book of fairy tales on the coffee table, surrounded by mugs, and old model boat in a bottle on the mantel piece, and several packets of salmiakki were on the coffee table too.

"I think we're safe here." Emil said after a moment, flopping onto the sofa with a huff "I wish they were less annoying though."

"I bet if teacher slept with someone he'd be a lot le-"

"I really,  _really_ don't want to know about that, Leon." Emil interrupted him after a moment "So… you were saying about watching a movie?"

Ten minutes later a sound from upstairs found its way down to them "What do you mean you're not in the mood!?" a silence "No! That's not fair! What am I meant to do!? That's mean Norge! That's really mean!"

Leon and Emil exchanged a glance and a slightly awkward look "I would say things aren't going so well for those two…"

A few minutes later Matthias stomped into the room, wearing only a pair of boxers "He's so heartless…" he grumbled, sitting angrily on the arm chair by the TV "You want to know what he did!?"

"I really don't…" Emil said, rolling his eyes and sinking further back into the sofa "Whatever you two do behind closed doors really isn't my business."

"I was about to invade Oslo!"

"Too much information, Den! Too much information!"

"I told you, you weren't getting any." Lukas said, leaning against the doorframe, having made his way quietly down the stairs.

"I thought you changed your mind!"

"When I say no, I mean no, Matthias."

"You didn't have to do that!"

"Maybe we should go…" Emil said quietly to Leon, watching Lukas and Matthias argue was never fun anyway. Tino would step in soon and put them in their places, and he didn't want to be there when it happened. The Fin didn't seem like a threatening person, due to his usual happy demeanour, but there were times when he was terrifying; maybe it was because he seemed like such a happy person, and who could make someone like that angry?

"I was trying to teach you something." Lukas continued.

"What? That you're a total meanie!?" Matthias exclaimed, slightly childishly

"That, and that if someone says 'no' it doesn't mean 'convince me'" Lukas said dryly, leaving Matthias not sure what to say.

"Hey, what's going on?" Tino said, walking in with a smile, Berwald standing by his side.

"Matthias was just being an idiot, nothing unusual."

"I'm not an idiot!"

Tino watched, noticing Leon who was sat beside Emil "Oh, Hello! I know you! You're Hong Kong, right?" he said with a smile, extending a hand to him, to shake.

"You can call me Leon." He said, shaking Tino's hand, noticing that for a soft looking man, he had an awfully strong hand shake.

"Okay then, Leon, it's nice to properly meet you!" he said, with another bright smile.

"You too."

Emil watched the exchange, rolling his eyes. This was embarrassing. This whole thing was embarrassing. Lukas and Matthias were embarrassing. Matthias himself was embarrassing, Tino was embarrassing, Berwald was… well he was pretty quiet, but in an argument he never sided with him, which was really annoying at times.

Turning back to Matthias and Lukas, Tino asked "So… what happened?"

"So Norge and I were in the bedroom and-"

"I don't want to hear this!" Emil exclaimed, standing up. He took Leon's hand and started walking out of the room "So embarrassing…" he said, holding Leon's hand and walking up the stairs. Leon gave him a somewhat sympathetic look, as they walked up the stairs, noticing Emil's red face.

"The joke's on them, because now you look cooler than the whole rest of your family." Leon said with a slight smile, nudging Emil in the ribs.

"It's still embarrassing to be related to them…" he said, puffing his cheeks a little.

"But then you look super cool, because you're related to them." He said, pausing for a moment "Hey, Ice, What's cooler than being cool?" Leon began.

"Don't you dare…"Emil said, knowing what was coming.

"Ice cold! Alright alright alright alright alright alright alright alright!" he sang loudly

"I hate you…"Emil muttered walking into his bedroom and slumping onto the bed. Leon sat beside him, noticing that even their bed covers were the same. Leon supposed that the only reason that they weren't on the same street as each other was because it would be difficult to get that many houses so close to each other, but it was obvious by the insides of the houses that he'd done everything in bulk, probably to reduce cost.

"So, what now?" Leon asked, putting an arm around Emil's shoulder.

"Could you not…" Emil said, shrugging Leon's arm off "I'm not really in the mood, gotta say.

"Oh, okay then…" Leon said, feeling slightly put out, but understanding that Emil was probably quite embarrassed about the whole ordeal "Hey, tomorrow we go to my house instead?" he asked, trying to change the subject, or at least cheer Emil up a little.

"You got a lock on your door yet?" Emil asked, flopping onto his back.

"Not yet, but I can get one, I think." Leon said, following suit and lying beside Emil "I think Yao's going to kill me when I get home…"

"You were being kind of a dick to the teacher, you know."

"We're not going to be here long, I can mess around a bit."

"Yeah, but you really  _should_  know English anyways. You were brought up by England himself."

"I knew more then, but I don't like English much so, yeah."

"Even so, why'd you bring Yao into it?"

"I was hoping he would scare the teacher a bit, so I could get away with stuff." Leon shrugged.

"That's really dishonest…" Emil said, with a questioning glance "Don't you get in trouble?"

"Nah, there's nothing wrong with loop holes…" he said "Yao sometimes tells me off I guess."

"That why you bootleg stuff?"

"That's not bad either. I'm just making cheap stuff."

"You know it's not always that safe?" he said, thinking of the time he bought a bootleg DS and it caught fire once when it was charging.

"It makes me money, and money is good for stuff." Leon said with another shrug.

"I get most of my money from tourists." Emil said, knowing he didn't have nearly as much money as Leon.

"Yeah, I get a lot from them too."

"No need to rub it in; let me feel better than you for not pirating things to make cheap cash."

"If it makes you feel better."

"It does."

"You want to make out  _now?"_

"No, idiot, I want to lay here and feel better than you." Emil said, elbowing him in the side gently.

"Fine, but I might fall asleep again."

"I'll push you off the bed if you do."

"Owch, you're so harsh." Leon said, slightly jokingly.

"What can I say, Ice is in my name."

"I'm in love with an ice queen."

"Puffin Prince, actually."

"Fine then, Puffin Prince."

More time passed and the two of them continued to talk while downstairs Matthias was sulking in the corner, and Lukas was making himself some fish, Tino was watching the television with Berwald who would glare cautioning Matthias to do anything else annoying.

At about 7:30PM, Emil and Leon decided it was about time for the Asian to go home, so they ventured downstairs, and Leon thanked the others for having him in their home.

"I hope I can see you back here soon!" Tino said with a smile, waving him off, Lukas glared at him a little, threatening him with his eyes to stay away from his little brother.

On his way home, Leon visited Starbucks again, half because he felt like having coffee, and half because he knew how much it irritated Yao when he had coffee instead of tea. Secretly he preferred tea anyway, but he enjoyed seeing Yao looking irritated at him more than he enjoyed tea.

Opening the door, Leon walked into the house "I'm home!" he called in Chinese, as he only spoke English when he was out of the house, or with Leon, taking off his school back and dumping it with Yong and Mei's bags.

"How can you be failing English!?" Yao exclaimed, storming over to him angrily.

"Blame eyebrows, he the one who like taught me, teacher."

Yao huffed "You can't call  _him_  eyebrows, when you have just as bad caterpillars on your face!"

"Yeah well… he's still the one who like taught me." Leon said, remembering that when he joined Yao again, Arthur cursed him with thick eyebrows.

"How could you not learn English from  _England_!?" Yao exclaimed "If you don't get better fast, I'll start teaching you." He said threateningly.

"Iceland said he would help me learn." Leon said, remembering that Emil and Yao were not on a first name basis.

"Well, if I don't see a marked improvement, I'll start speaking English to you at home too!"

"You want to speak English at home?" Leon challenged

"No!"

"Oh my God… I know what this is." In a moment of revelation

"What, that you need to learn English better! What do you do in meetings!?"

"You still have a thing for Arthur! Don't you! This is what this whole English thing is about!" he exclaimed, for once becoming angry at Yao, which didn't happen often. He was reminded of how things were between Arthur and Yao before, and how much they both hurt each other, and he couldn't stand the idea of that happening again. Last time Arthur took him away from his family for a long time and adopted him as his own when the Opium wars caused problems.

"What!? Of course I'm not still interested in him!" Yao lied

"You totally are! You haven't even dated anyone since him!"

"That means nothing! I'm too old for dating anyway!" In truth, Yao had never gotten over Arthur, and had remained bitter for a very long time, as did the Brit.

"I'm telling you it won't work." Leon insisted through Yao's façade.

"I said I wasn't interested in him!"

"And I know you're lying."

"I don't lie!"

"And Tibet isn't a part of China!" he said, knowing this was always something that annoyed Yao, as he still refused to acknowledge their independence.

"Yes it is! Yes it is! Tibet  _and_  Taiwan! No matter what she says!"

"I want to be independent." He said, trying to make a point.

"You already are!" Yao said "You are Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China! What more could you want!"

"I want to be my own country."

"No!"

"I can if I want!"

"No you can't! I won't let you!"

"I can and will!"

"You won't get any help from me!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"I'm going to my room!"

"You go to your room then!"

"I will!"

"Well go on then!"

"I am going!" Leon said, storming into his room. That could have gone better. He hadn't meant to shout at Yao, but sometimes he was just frustrating to be around. Most of the time he and Yao got on relatively well, and he didn't really want to be independent, he just wanted to annoy Yao. Leon considered letting off some fireworks out of his window, but he was smart enough to know when he was going too far, and that would be too far.

Yao slumped on the sofa downstairs beside Kiku "What am I going to do with him…" he said slightly hopelessly "It seems like he  _wants_  to annoy me…"

"Maybe he does?"

"What!?"

"In human years he would be roughly 16, and he has been spending time around human youths, so maybe it's rubbed off on him? I believe mister America had a rebellious phase too."

"When he put all that tea in the harbour?" Yao offered.

"Yes, that would be it." Kiku concluded.

"If he dumps all my tea in a harbour… I'll tell North Korea that he's planning an attack…" Yao said with a slight laugh.

"That seems extreme…" the Japanese man said questioningly.

"Tea is very important to me." Yao responded.

"But… no-one talks to North Korea, he just lets off rockets, and threatens Yong…"

"Maybe that is extreme, but you know what I mean."

"Yes, I would be very upset to have my tea put into the sea."

"Exactly, and he needs to be put in his place." Yao continued after a moment."

* * *

**AHAHAHA! That's it for now! Stay tuned for the next chapter! Sorry it took so long to get this posted! I got writer's block right in the middle of the chapter, and I've been working on that ask blog I said about askhongice .com Feel free to take a look, I do all the art on there and whatever ^w^**

**QUESTION TIME**

**1\. Will Yao ever admit his feelings?**

**2\. What will Lukas do about all of this?**

**3\. Why does Leon suck so much at English when he's actually really smart?**

**4\. What will happen in the next chapter?**

**I love getting reviews, more than I love eating cake, and it makes my day when I get them! I don't care if you think you sound really stupid, trust me when I say it doesn't matter so long as it's a review!**


	5. Drunk

**I'll try and get this posted nice and quickly! But chances are that by the time I post this, it won't be so soon, hehehe ^_^;; I do try to do things on time, I really do! I should say now that I have never once attended a house party, but I have heard about them and I looked at the Wikipedia. If I am terribly wrong about it, then just… laugh at my misinformation and enjoy it for all its cringe-worthy inaccuracies.**

As time passed, Leon and Emil saw more of the other young nations around the school, including Peter who had, much to Tino's displeasure, been staying with Arthur for the past couple of weeks, and was considering continuing to stay at the school for longer than all the other's because it was the first time in a long while he'd been allowed to really act like a 12 year old boy.

Emil mentioned it to Leon, and how upset Tino was about it and Leon almost laughed "Yeah, he likes doing that, but, tech-techni-"

"Technically?"

"Yeah, Sealand is in his waters, so he really is Arthur's kid." Leon said "I almost thought he was going to try and get me to stay in his house while I'm here, but teacher said no, also Yong said he didn't want to be left with the girls."

"Isn't Mei the only girl…?"

"Yeah, but teacher and Kiku aren't ex-exactly…"

"Point taken." Emil concluded, walking out of the school

"So that party's tonight, come with me." Leon said, for the millionth time "If you don't come I won't have fun!"

"I told you, I don't like parties, and all these kids are annoying anyway." The Icelander said, waving the idea off.

"Come for me, please?" he wheedled "You can get drunk enough to not care?"

"I don't know, I don't think we should get drunk the day before our meeting, Leon…" he said dubiously

"Emil… I don't want to go alone…"

"I don't want to go at all." He said testily "And I don't think it's a good idea."

"Every one else is going, and it might be fun… I haven't been to a party in ages…"

"I keep forgetting that you live in a massive city; this place must be so boring to you…"

"Yeah, please come with me?"

"You're not going to let up on this, are you?"

"Letting up?"

"Don't worry, I'll come to the damn party."

Leon smiled a little "That's great, do you want me to walk you home so you can get ready?" he said, walking into Starbucks like usual, Emil's hand in his, but this time it felt natural and Emil was blushing less than usual.

"I can walk home by myself it's okay." Emil told him, ordering his usual.

"No, I insist. You are my boyfriend, so I have to walk you home. I have to go back to Hong Kong at some point, and I don't wa-"

"Let's not talk about that right now?" Emil said, cutting him off, knowing how much he would miss Leon when he was gone, but not being able to admit quite how much the Asian boy meant to him.

"Okay." He said, ordering his drink "But I am walking you home."

"You sure?"

"Yes. I walk you home and give you goodbye kiss, and then go home and get ready. Yong is driving, so you can come with us."

"Will there be room in the car?"

"Mei is going with her friend, Liec-Lichte- Lili, I think." Leon said, stumbling over her name a little.

"Yeah, her, they're together a lot, aren't they?"

"Yeah. Mei likes girls."

"Likes girls?"

"Well, she's gay; I'm fairly sure anyway."

"How can you tell that?"

"Well, just little things, really, like when I saw her kissing Lili when she thought no-one was looking."

"That's kind of a big giveaway." Emil said "I never really noticed…"

"You wouldn't." Leon said matter-of-factly.

"What's that supposed to mean!?"

"Because why would you care if there were girls kissing? You're gay, right?"

"Then how come you noticed!?" Emil exclaimed, his face heating up slightly.

"She's my sister, and I keep an eye on her."

"… okay, fair point there." Emil said with slight nod, his face still red.

The two of them continued walking to Emil's house, sipping their drinks and talking about idle things, like how their teacher seemed to be staying around Leon less, and how they'd gotten a few facts wrong in the history lesson. Slowly the conversation diverged into their blogs and anime's they watched, and then ships, and OTPs and slowly they came to the realization that they had incredibly similar taste.

When they reached Emil's house, they bid their goodbyes, and Leon requested a goodbye kiss which Emil reluctantly gave him, before walking into his house, and kicking off his shoes. He didn't know what he was supposed to be wearing. He'd never really been to one of these parties, and although he was relatively fashion conscious, he still seemed to be one step behind the rest of Europe.

It wasn't that formal, so a suit was out of the question, but then what would he wear? If not a suit, then some jeans and a shirt? Or was this more of a t-shirt occasion? He didn't want to call up Leon and confess that he didn't even know what to wear, and he certainly wasn't going to ask anyone in his house for help. He was half tempted to wear on of his thick woollen jumpers, but everyone else seemed to think that they were ugly, so they might not have been very good party attire.

He decided on jeans and a shirt; he couldn't go far wrong with that. The meeting was tomorrow, so this was the perfect opportunity for him to do some last minute research. He could write down some notes to use in the morning.

As predicted, Yong's car pulled up outside the house and Leon stepped out. Emil had never seen Leon out of school or meetings, and so hadn't had the chance to see him in casual clothes. He looked really good, not that Emil was going to say, but Leon looked like he'd stepped out of a high-end clothes shop in all the latest brands. Chances were that they were bootleg, but either way, he looked good.

Emil left the house and walked over to the Asian "Let's get this over with then…" he said, as Leon took his hand and took him over to the car. Yong had a small car, but it had enough room for the both of them to sit in the back seat. Yong said he wanted the front seat free in case he met any nice ladies at the party.

When they arrived, the house was full of people. It wasn't a touch on the clubs Leon occasionally visited at home, and in his opinion the music needed to be louder, but apart from that, it looked to him like it would be a good time, well, to Leon anyway.

Emil's stomach was in knots. There was no way he wanted to go in there, but Leon was already pulling him into the house.

"Louder!" Leon shouted over the already loud music, hoping someone would turn the sound system up a little more, which someone did, which made the Hong-Konger smile slightly. Yong had already found friends and was talking to them animatedly "I wonder where the drinks are." Leon said, looking around "It won't be so fun unless I'm drunk." He said. His rigid upbringing when he'd been living with Arthur had given him very strict inhibitions that weren't in the party spirit, but with some alcohol running through his system all inhibitions would become a distant memory.

Emil frowned but followed Leon into the kitchen where a few people were sat around drinking, and in various stages of drunk. The atmosphere in the kitchen was a little quieter than in the lounge, and most of the people there were either resting, chatting, or drinking, or more than one of those things.

After a while, the two of them found themselves suitably tipsy. Leon was tripping over his English more than usual, and seemed to be smiling a lot more, whereas Emil's English was fine, but he was definitely smiling more. Leon pulled Emil into the lounge where the music was loudest and there were some people dancing, though many were just standing around.

Dancing wasn't really what it should have been called but it didn't seem to matter. It was more jumping around a bit or grinding against someone. Leon waved at Mei who was talking to Lili happily "She's totally gay." Leon said with a slight laugh, dancing with Emil, who was getting bored of dancing and left to stand by the wall and just watch Leon who seemed fully capable of having a good time by himself.

After Emil left, someone else came to dance with him. She seemed quite drunk too, but she was good fun. The music was loud, the atmosphere was good, and he had enough alcohol in his system to forget about all his usual inhibitions. Leon waved over at Emil, continuing to grind against the girl to the music, but Emil just frowned back at him.

At some point, she started to dance facing him, placing his hands on her hips as she hung hers over his shoulders for balance. Leon smiled at her, in a good mood from the party and started making small talk, before realizing after the word 'so' he was a little lost and couldn't remember any more English. Someone was passing around shots; Leon and the girl both took them, grinning and giggling at each other.

Emil watched from the side, leaning against the wall for balance, taking a drink when it was given to him.

The girl, who Leon still didn't know the name of started leaning into him, and whispered something in his ear, but he didn't know what she was saying. After a moment, she pulled him into a kiss, as he tried to get out of the way. He was drunk, but he wasn't drunk enough to forget about Emil "Bu! No…" he said to her, pushing her face away a little.

Emil had seen enough. He stormed through the dancing people, making his way over to Leon, who wasn't sure what to do, because this girl had just kissed him and didn't seem to want to take no for an answer. Emil yelled "Hey you!" drunkly, making the girl turn to look at him. He slapped her clean across the face before turning to Leon and slapping him too, angrily, before pulling him in by the collar and kissing him "mine." He said simply.

He tasted like alcohol, but Leon didn't care. His cheek might have been stinging, and his footing was a little off; not to mention his complete loss of the English language meant that anything that anyone said just washed over him, well mostly.

"Let's go upstairs~" Emil whispered, slurring slightly in his ear, warm damp breath against his skin. Leon just nodded a little dumbly at him, a big smile on his face as Emil dragged him by the collar up the stairs "You're my bitch, Leon. Don't forget it." He declared, wobbling a little at the top of the stairs, before continuing to go and look for a room.

"Mhm~" he hummed happily, being dragged along. After accidentally walking into a room occupied by Yong and a girl they didn't know, they stumbled into an empty bedroom.

Closing the door behind them, Emil started kissing Leon against the door. They probably weren't the best kisses in the world, but neither of them cared. After a few moments of kissing, Leon led Emil to the bed, flopping back onto it "Take me~" he crooned, trying to unbutton his trousers, but his fingers not responding the way he wanted them to.

Emil moved over him, helping him with his trousers "Did I ever tell you how sexy you are when you dress casual?" he asked, fiddling with the waistband on his boxers.

Leon replied in Chinese, saying something on the lines of 'I don't know what you're saying' Emil just rolled his eyes at it, as Leon slid his hands up under Emil's shirt smoothing them against the soft flesh.

Meanwhile, Yao was speaking to Kiku back at the house that was not in-fact occupied by a plethora of teens "I'm just saying that I don't think they should be out this late when the meeting's tomorrow." He said frowning at the other "Do you know where they are?" Yao asked.

"Well," Kiku started, trying to remember something Yong had said to him a short time ago "I think he said something about a house party?" he suggested. Yao nodded commenting on the fact that he also had heard Yong saying something along those lines.

"Do you think we should collect them?" he asked "I don't like them being out this late."

"I don't think that would be such a good idea…" he started, but Yao was already standing.

"I'm going to collect them. I'll be back soon." He said, walking to the door, pulling on a coat "If I'm not back in an hour, call the police… or my mobile phone." He said, before closing it behind himself, walking out to his car and realizing he didn't know where the party even was. He sighed in frustration "What now… How do I know where to go? I'll text Mei." He said "She'll tell me where it is." He concluded to himself.

Yao sent her the message:

'I'm collecting you and the boys, where are you?'

After waiting for a moment he received a reply:

'You suck. We're in a house on the same road as the school'

Yao assumed he'd know the house when he saw it, and started driving in that direction. He was a little irritated by the vagueness of the response, but he was glad he got it. Starting the car, he set off towards the house, grumbling to himself.

Yao did indeed know when he reached the correct house. The music was audible from outside, and there seemed to be a lot of people inside. He stepped out of the car and walked up to the house, knocking loudly on the door until someone opened it.

"Sorry, mate, was the music too loud?" the person who answered the door asked, assuming he was a neighbour.

"Yes, but that is not the point." He said "I've come to collect my children." He said simply, stepping through the door, before the host could protest.

Mei was in the lounge with that Blonde girl Switzerland doted over. They were talking to each other animatedly, at the side, opting not to dance. Yao walked over to the two of them with a frown "Mei get in the car. I'm getting the boys, then we're leaving." He said, trying to sound cool and dramatic. He would never admit it, but Yao was one of the biggest drama queens around.

Mei rolled her eyes and sighed, looking at Lili "Sorry, I've got to go… You'll call up Vash when you want to go home, right?" Lili nodded, watching Mei being pulled out by the elbow.

"Did you see where the boys went?" he asked her, standing in the hall.

"They went upstairs, but I wouldn't got there if I were- …. And he's gone…" she sighed, watching as Yao began to walk up the stairs.

Yao flung open a door at random, to the bathroom apparently. No-one was in there, and he felt a little stupid, but he continued his search. The next door he opened was a room where currently only Yong was in, looking a little downtrodden.

"I'm not going to ask…" he said after a moment "I'm also taking you home. Your sister's in the car. I'm finding Leon then we're leaving." He said, pausing for a moment "And put a shirt on…" he said with a grimace, before leaving the room. He flung open a couple more doors, one of which was to a cupboard, the other to a couple getting a little 'too' friendly with each other.

Finally, he flung open the correct door, to see his 'son' half-naked in bed with the Icelander, both of them having fell asleep. Deciding to wake them up he yelled, in Chinese, because he didn't want the whole house knowing what he said "Get out of bed and stop being a whore!"

This startled the two of them enough to wake up, Leon mumbling something like "I'm not a whore…" back in Chinese.

"Then stop acting so indecently, and come with me. I'm taking you home." Yao said, rubbing his temples in frustration.

"But we didn't do anything…" he slurred "We fell asleep just as he was about t-"

"I don't want to hear it!"

By this point, Emil had sat up and started looking for his clothes, mumbling something along the lines of "Ching chong… ling long…" to which Yao frowned and grumbled loudly. He left the room, telling Emil in English that he could come back to the house too if he wanted to "Yeah, sounds good…" he mumbled in reply holding up a pair of trousers wondering if they were his or Leon's.

Leon sat up slowly "Come back to bed~" he crooned, remembering a small amount of English. Emil shook his head and insisted that both of them get dressed and follow Yao to the car "But Emiiiil…" he whined, holding out his hands, making grabby motions.

"No, no, your China said that we have to go with him…" he said, pulling on a pair of jeans "No, these are yours…" he said after a moment, pulling them off when they didn't fit, and picking up the other pair, assuming they must be his, by a process of elimination "You have to get dressed, Leon." He said, buttoning them up.

"No…" he grumbled "I want to fuck…" Yao who was standing outside the door was muttering dishonour under his breath at Leon's comment and knocked on the door to tell them to hurry up.

"We can do that later… I don't want China to get pissed off… his population is like… a gazillion of mine." Emil said, pulling on a shirt.

"You said words…" Leon said before switching to Chinese "English is hard let's speak Chinese now." He shuffled to the side of the bed, standing up on shaky legs "Fine… where are my boxers?"

"I don't know what you just said, Leon…" Emil muttered to himself, handing Leon his boxers "You'll want these, right?" he'd not understood him, but by common sense he figured Leon would want them.

A time later, Yao finally had Mei, Yong, Leon and Emil in the car. Mei was sat in the front passenger seat texting Lili grumpily, moaning about how annoying the boys were being in the back. Leon and Emil were giggling and Leon had insisted that Emil sit on his lap, declaring things like "I have a boner~" and "Let's do it here in the car." Emil didn't understand him, but Yong was in hysterics, and Yao was shouting at Leon angrily.

When they finally got back to the house, despite Yao thinking this car trip would never end, the boys toppled out of the car, and Mei huffed, walking grumpily to the door "I don't see why I'm in trouble because those idiots got drunk…"

"Because I never said you could go to a party, Mei!" Yao snapped, opening the door "Everyone go to bed! You have a meeting tomorrow!" he felt like ripping his hair out. He sunk down on the couch beside Kiku, who didn't seem to have moved for the past hour "Aiyaa…" he sighed slouching in his seat, sliding his feet forwards along the floor.

"That bad?" Kiku asked quietly, feeling a little awkward from the racket the boys were still making.

"You have no idea…" he said, as he started to recount each horror of the evening after the next, Kiku nodding in agreement that it sounded ghastly "And that is why I thought this whole thing with the youth of England." He declared "It should have taken place in China."

"Are you sure that would be wise?" Kiku asked "I mean with th-"

"I am sure. That Arthur knows nothing about children, it's obvious from how Leon turned out, and America." He huffed "I'm much better at raising kids, therefore they should come to China to learn about them."

"But wouldn't that be risky?"

"How?"

"Most of them don't know any Chinese… English is more… well known." Kiku suggested "And from what I remembered you don't like Alfred at the moment, do you?"

"I don't like any of those westerners…" Yao huffed again, slumping further down in his seat.

"I see."

**Bam! End of chapter! This one was surprisingly hard to write! I wanted to make my lovely boys OOC because they were intoxicated, but not too much so? I also have no experience with house parties or social occasions, so I'm sure this was inaccurate and possibly painful. Either way, reviews are loved, and I love it when you guys answer my questions too! I should say that I wrote a little prologue to this, called 'Hong Kong's first world meeting'**

**Question time!**

**What's gonna happen in the meeting?**

**What did you think of my drunk babies?**

**What should happen next?**

**What could Leon be hiding?**

**What will Arthur think about all of this? (In the meeting I mean)**


	6. Meetings

**Okay, new chapter! Sorry it took a while! I just procrastinate a lot, and have school work, or just don't write when I should be writing! Anyhow, on with the fic!**

Waking up that morning might have been the most painful thing either of the boys had experienced in a while. Emil squinted as the harsh light poured through the blinds into his eyes groaning and rubbing his eyes groggily, feeling ill beyond compare. A wave of nausea swept over him forcing him out of the bed and down the hall to throw up in the toilet. This was not dignified, or pleasant, or in any way how he wanted to start his day. He stayed hanging onto the seat for a moment, as the world span, feeling pathetic and ill, but having no choice. Lukas was going to kill him. Emil couldn't remember the last time he'd felt this ill, but it had definitely been a while. He didn't tend to drink, but this had been one time, and it just had to be on the day that he'd have a meeting he'd actually have to speak in. Sods law indeed.

Leon woke up in a slightly less pleasant way, though both ways of waking were certainly not pleasant. A grumpy, somewhat sleep deprived Yao, who was worried about being late for the meeting, burst into the room, shouting about how late they were going to be, causing the boy to jerk awake rather suddenly, hitting his head on the headboard of his bed. Despite this way of rousing the teen, Yao was not without compassion as he set down two glasses of water, and some painkillers for the two boys, before handing Leon a bucket and saying "Emil beat you to the bathroom. I'm making breakfast downstairs; try not to be too late." To be fair, he wouldn't have been able to wake Leon unless he'd shouted.

Arriving at the meeting after a morning of sheer pain and discomfort, they walked into the meeting room, feeling only slightly better through the miracle of modern medicine. This was the same meeting room that Leon had attended his first meeting in, so many years ago, when he was still being looked after by Arthur, and the first time that he'd ever seen the Icelander who continued to fascinate him to this day.

Maybe it was the hangover making him think such deep thoughts, but Leon couldn't help but think to himself that it just made sense to take things as quickly as he had with Emil. He'd been waiting to spend time with him since the 80s, but had never had a proper opportunity. He'd just watched him, and thought about him a lot. It wasn't the same, no, but he couldn't help it. For some reason those were the thoughts that were circling around his mind, in a meeting that he should have been studying for. It'd been decades, but his fascination with him had never ebbed. Obviously he didn't make it obvious, and so to many it seemed as if he'd suddenly fallen in love with Emil, but in true fact, he'd been in love for a while.

He zoned out as each young nation stood to voice their opinion and make their short speech, until his name was called. He swallowed nervously, his mouth uncomfortably dry still. He must have looked like he had a hangover, there wasn't any escaping it really. He stood to voice his opinion, trying to get as much a grip on English as he could "I think the youth of today are just as the youth has always been. The only change are because of the pressure for them to grow up before they are old." He said, before sitting down. It was one of the shortest speeches he'd ever made, but he couldn't think of anything else, and he only remembered it because he'd made it up in his head over the week, hoping to be able to say more on the day. That party had been such a bad idea.

Arthur frowned at Yao, noticing Leon's state only too easily "Honestly, and you say I raised him badly? Wasn't he staying with you?"

"Yes, well such damage takes a long time to undo." Yao retorted, frowning. It did look like he himself had done a bad job if it was looked at like that.

"I didn't teach him such habits as that." Arthur stated testily

"Neither did I!" Yao raised his voice a fraction "And I know what you're like with alcohol…"

Leon glanced at the two quarrelling nations as they engaged in another whispered argument. He rolled his eyes at them, fiddling with his place name idly. This meeting was just a small quick meeting. It wouldn't go on for too long, and he was glad. He'd be able to find somewhere to eat lunch with Emil and go home; that wouldn't be terrible, and he knew London well enough not to get lost which was another good thing.

"Look, Yao, we can argue about this all you like but we're not getting anywhere." Arthur said with a sigh.

"That sounds like the argument of a man who knows he's lost."

"Jesus Christ, Yao, just listen to me." Arthur said in exasperation "Why don't we just sit down over a cuppa and discuss this, because all this arguing is highly counterproductive." He said. Usually he was rather fond of arguing, though he wouldn't say that, but himself and Yao had unresolved issues that he'd rather were resolved.

"You think I want to have tea with you?" he asked stubbornly, glaring at him "I don't want to listen to your stupid western ideas, thank you very much." He added, with an insult.

"Yao…" he sighed, rubbing his temple gently "I just think that perhaps instead of fighting for once, we could maybe talk this though. I know a good tea shop around here. I don't think fighting about this in a meeting is helping anyone, especially not Leon."

"Your reasoning is sound… I guess…" Yao replied "And you know his name used to be Li Xiao… He never answers to that anymore, thanks to you." He grumbled.

"Yeah, well you gave him to me."

"I didn't have a choice."

"Let's drop this. It was years ago, and I think I am correct in saying that we're mature enough to let bygones be bygones." He sighed, still feeling a little guilty, but that was back when he still had his empire, and he was trying to expand it as much as he could, especially as America had left.

"I still think that you were being a dick." Yao said, crossing his arms.

"Yes, yes. Do we have an agreement?"

"An agreement to discuss this over tea?"

"That."

"I suppose… Only because I'm thirsty and Leon doesn't like it when we fight."

"I don't think he's fond of us being friends either."

"He has unresolved issues."

"This is like some kind of family sitcom…" Arthur mused "I think we have unresolved issues, and I wish to resolve them." He said.

And so, after the meeting, Arthur and Yao walked to a nearby teashop, Yong met up with Alfred and they went off together, Mei and Lili walked out together, with Vash walking a few steps behind them. Leon and Emil took a little more time to leave the meeting room, both still feeling worse for wares.

Yao and Arthur walked into the small teashop. There weren't many people in there, but it had a very friendly atmosphere, and the air smelt like pastries and cakes and coffee, which although neither of them drank it often, they had to admit it smelt good.

"So, what did you want to discuss?" Yao asked him, idly coming his fingers through his ponytail, it was windy outside, and he wanted to keep it neat.

"I wanted to make some form of agreement, so there won't be any tension between us." Arthur said, waiting for his tea, and straightening his blazer "We… broke up on some bad terms and I want to right things." He added after a moment.

"If you want for us to be in a relationship again, you can forget it." Yao frowned "I promise you that I have no interest in you, or your stupid caterpillar brows." He'd have raised his voice, but the social convention of this tea shop meant that he had to just use a raised whisper to get the point across.

"That's not what I meant anyway." He said "You say that, but you've not been with anyone since me, have you?" he said "Are you really still bitter?"

"Well neither have you…" Yao huffed, thanking the waitress for his tea "I thought you had a thing for that Frenchman…" he said, running his finger around the rim of his teacup.

"No way." Arthur said, curling his lip a little in disgust "He and I have history sure, but he's… well it was always someone else with him." Arthur sighed "And that was longer ago than you; from what I heard, he's with Prussia at the moment."

"Really? That's kind of weird…" Yao said, shaking his head "That guy's not even a country anymore…"

"I don't think France minds, I mean remember when he got all upset over Jean?"

"Vaguely?"

"And she was… well not even one of us."

"I don't think it was serious between them?" Yao said, leaning in a little "Was it that serious?" He wouldn't admit it, but he really missed all this gossiping with Arthur, over tea.

"Apparently so…" he mused, sipping his tea, leaning in against the table as well "Anyway, back on topic, we seem to have diverged." He began again "What's going on with Leon, and why was he drunk?"

Yao sighed in exasperation "There was a party last night, with his schoolmates, and he went along, and apparently got very drunk." He said "Trust me, it was not enjoyable to watch him grinding against that white haired Nordic boy…"

"Iceland?"

"Yeah him…." Yao nodded a little, grimacing at the memory "They're a couple now, apparently."

"I knew he had a thing for him…" Arthur mused "I always used to catch him making goo-goo eyes in that Iceland's direction, and asking about him…" he said "I assumed he'd get over it."

"You didn't tell me?"

"I didn't think I'd need to… He never really spoke to Iceland much, and when he did, well Iceland seemed relatively uninterested?"

"Well you were wrong."

"I am aware of that." Arthur said, nodding "Now, could I propose an idea?"

"I'm listening…"

"I was thinking that maybe we could spend some time, talking things through like this, because I know I did some things wro-"

"You did a lot of things wrong." Yao interjected.

"Yes yes… but, I want to make things right between us again, because… and you won't hear me saying this again… but, I've missed talking to you." Arthur told him. Of course, he'd missed a lot more about him, but he wasn't going to let on.

"A-are you saying you want to… uh…" Yao didn't know what expression to make. Surprise? Bashfulness? Apprehension? Excitement even?

"Perhaps we could… on probationary terms. If it doesn't end well… we can call it quits, but I've changed a lot… and so maybe it… it could work?" Arthur suggested, trying not to seem desperate about him.

Yao never believed this would happen "I-I will have to think about it." He said, his face heating up a little "Were you suggesting more tea?"

"Something like that? Perhaps you could c-come and visit my house... and I could make some tea and it would be uh… more… more private."

At this moment, Leon and Emil were walking past. Emil took a slight double take, seeing England and China in a tea shop. It was odd to see people he knew, without having arranged to meet them, unless it was another Nordic, because well those guys seemed to have a thing for stalking him occasionally.

"Hey, is that England and China?" Emil asked, nudging Leon who seemed to be daydreaming a little.

"Hm?" he asked, before turning to see them. He felt something drop inside him, like a huge weight in his stomach. Something inside him just made him want to run away, and ignore what he saw. He did not see them making eyes at each other, or laughing at jokes, or gossiping, he did not. He did not. Before he even realized it, he'd run away.

He couldn't help but think about all the fighting, all the problems, all the underhanded lying and deceit. Both of them had done terrible things, and wars never ended well. Arthur would try to leave Leon out of things, but be using his ports to import opium into the country, and to be a grouping point for his troops, and so Leon was always somewhat in on what happened, and Arthur couldn't keep him in the dark about it all.

Emil blinked for a moment, seeing Leon sprinting off. How he managed that with a hangover, well he didn't think he' ever understand. Emil started to walk after him, calling his name. He briefly noticed that Yao and Arthur turned their heads, but he was too distracted to really think about things, as his stomach was still churning, and his head was still pounding.

Eventually, Leon stopped running and just kind of fell to his knees, breathing harshly. Emil caught up with him after a moment, completely perplexed by Leon's behaviour "You feel sick or something?" he asked, kneeling beside Leon before he noticed "Oh, shit… why are you crying?" he asked. He wasn't sure if he'd ever seen Leon cry… about anything. He always assumed that he just didn't.

"I'm fine…" he mumbled after a moment "Just… bad memories, but it's nothing, it's nothing…" he added, as Emil put an awkward hand on his shoulder.

"I-uh, I didn't think that well all that was still an issue, y'know?" Emil said, after a moment. He didn't really know what to do. Generally he wasn't particularly empathetic, and he really was clueless as to how to go about comforting him.

"It wasn't..." he said "But they're… not meant to be friends…" Leon moved to hug Emil tightly, crushing him perhaps just a little "Whenever they got together it never ended well…" he said.

Emil didn't complain about the lack of oxygen in his lungs, and just hugged him back, trying his best to be comforting "They had a bunch of wars, right?" he asked, hoping he'd gotten his facts right.

"Yeah…" he mumbled into Emil's neck "I want to be home…" he said quietly.

"What, like  _home_  home?" he asked, rubbing his back gently.

"Yeah… but we've gotta be here… so I will stay with you?" he asked, sniffling a little.

Emil nodded "Yeah, that's fine. I stayed the night at yours. I'll just text Lukas that you're coming, and tell him to tell Yao and whatever…" he said awkwardly, not wanting to bring him up, but not knowing how not to bring him up.

"Okay…" Leon said, sniffing again "Sorry, I'm fine, I just panicked…"

"It's fine, y'know… because everyone gets upset from time to time…" Emil told him awkwardly "You wanna get up now, and go back to my place?" he asked pulling out of the hug a little, to look at Leon's face. He tightened his lips a little, seeing his face so flushed and streaked with tears was not something he enjoyed in the slightest.

"Yeah…" he nodded again, standing up and swiping his eyes quickly "I think it's the hangover…" he said "It put me in a bad mood."

"That reasoning is pretty sound…" he said "I still feel pretty like throwing up…" he said, standing up slowly "I'm just gonna sleep forever…"

"I will sleep also…" Leon added with a nod, starting to walk in the direction of Emil's house. Emil took his hand, giving him a reassuring squeeze, not sure what to say, so just not saying anything at all, as he didn't want to make him feel worse by mistake, and just let Leon have some time to think as he walked.

Continuing to walk, Leon did indeed take some time to think. He thought about how much Arthur and Yao had fought, and how Yao had surrendered him to Arthur, and how he spent months not understanding anything that was said, and watching battle plans and attacks and opium trade happen all from his borders. He remembered the solemn tears streaking his teacher as he was led away by the tall Englishman, who spoke in a language that at the time sounded like nonsense.

Leon's face heated up as he continued to think, his eyes prickling. What was wrong with him? Usually he was so composed but this… this was too much, in his opinion. All the memories he'd been forgetting, everything he was trying not to think about… it was coming back. He felt pathetic, just clutching to Emil's hand as he walked, silent tears streaking down his face, holding in a sob.

Emil took a moment to notice, before panicking slightly as Leon was crying again, and he still wasn't used to this, at all. He squeezed Leon's hand again "It's okay…" being the only words he could think to say "It's okay…" he pulled Leon into a hug, a little surprised at the limpness of Leon in his arms. He didn't even hug back; he just stood there, crying, leaning against him gently, his arms hanging dejectedly by his sides.

"Come on…" he said after a moment, breaking away from the hug, disliking seeing Leon like this; his cheeks and lips and nose all red, his eyes puffy and tearful, and an expression of helplessness and despair that just looked so wrong on the face of a boy who never seemed like he was even capable of this kind of emotion. Apparently, he was.

Upon reaching the house, Emil used his key to get in. Tino was already there and as Leon walked off to get a tissue, walked over to Emil, speaking in a hushed voice "Is he okay?"

"I dunno?" Emil replied honestly, in the same hushed tones "He saw England and China in a café together and just freaked out."

"Oh… hm..." Tino said, thinking to himself "Why don't you two go to your room, and I'll bring up some food for lunch?" he offered, with a soft smile "Then perhaps you could both sleep, you look exhausted."

Emil nodded, rubbing his eyes with the heel of his hand "Yeah, I am." He supressed a yawn "Really tired."

"Well, you have something to eat first." He said, nodding, walking off to the kitchen, passing Leon as he did, and giving him a reassuring smile "I'm going to bring up some food in a short while." He said.

The boys walked up to Emil's room and flopped onto the bed in unison, Leon cuddling up to Emil burying his face in his chest. Emil stroked his hair, the silky strands sliding easily though his fingers; he'd always been envious of Leon's hair. They stayed silent, in each other's arms it'd been a long day, and it wasn't even lunchtime yet.

A short while later, Tino entered the room with some sandwiches and juice for them "I didn't make you boys too much, because I wasn't sure how hungry you'd be, so if this isn't enough, just say so." He told them with a smile, setting the tray down on Emil's bedside table and leaving again, to give them some privacy. Tino knew that at the moment, they wouldn't want someone from the outside talking to them, and what they needed was to just relax and have something to eat.

Once they'd both eaten and had something to drink, they laid back down and decided to get some sleep.

**And so concludes this chapter! I am always thankful for reviews, and they always mean the world to me! They just mean so much to me! I mean if I don't know what you guys like and don't like, I really don't know how to make you happy ^o^ Without further ado though, QUESTION TIME:**

**What's going to happen between Arthur and Yao?**

**Where's Berwald?**

**How does Leon get his hair so silky?**

**What will happen when they all have to go home again?**

**Is something else bothering Leon?**


	7. Drama ensues

**I told you I'd get back to this! I just wanted to take a short break to write some more of my other fanfiction ideas down, and get some art done! This chapter is a little different, but bear with it.**

Arthur decided to invite Yao to his house, after they'd gone to the tea shop. He was a little at a loss as to what to do, as he didn't often hold company. He'd always found people difficult, and anything vaguely romantic was both alien to him, and in most cases awkward.

Yao sat on the plush sofa in the lounge, looking around himself as he reclined into its leather cushions. He didn't have Arthur pegged as the kind of man to have a leather sofa, thinking he'd prefer some kind of floral print fabric sofa with crochet throws and embroidery. However, he was proven wrong by this smooth leather loveseat.

Arthur was in the kitchen, methodically making the tea, as he did every day, several times a day. The sound of the kettle and the sugar pot being opened were almost therapeutically familiar to him. They made him think of curling up on his sofa with a blanket and a good book. He did that most days, unless he wanted to tend to his garden, or needed to run errands.

Walking into the room, Arthur smiled a little at Yao, still not accustomed to seeing anyone else in his house. He did have guests, but it wasn't often, or for long. He liked to keep visits brief most of the time, and liked to brush people off quickly and get things done.

Yao was different though. He felt more at ease around him, for some reason. He wasn't sure what exactly it was about Yao's company that he enjoyed, but there was a certain something that took the edge off of it, well, now that they weren't constantly bickering helped.

He placed the tea tray down on the hard wood table, and sat beside the other, the sofa cushions sinking a little as he sat into them "You don't take anything with your tea, do you?" being the first thing he said. He knew it was awkward, but he needed to be sure, and he'd not made tea for Yao in a long time.

The Chinese man nodded with a smile, knowing he was bad with social interaction, but finding it to be one of his most endearing attributes, as it meant that when Arthur wanted to pro-actively spend time with him, he must've been important "No, that's right, I don't like to spoil my tea like you do." He said, unable to resist making a slight criticism.

"Unlike you, I like to make the most of my tea, and enjoy it." He said, adding a cube of sugar and a splash of milk to his cup.

The afternoon turned to evening, and even then, Arthur was enjoying keeping Yao's company, while it became more and more evident to Yao that Arthur was one hell of a shut in. After not having any colonies in a while, the solitude must have gotten to him, he thought to himself.

That evening, when Yao was asleep, Arthur snuck out of the bed and into his cellar. He'd decided that he wanted to try and find a way to make himself better at romantic situations. Yao had been sleeping next to him, and he didn't even know if he could cuddle up to him or not. He just wanted something to help his confidence, and give him some knowledge on these things.

He found a spell that increased confidence, and he thought that obviously that would be a good place to start. He, however was unaware that his magical friends, who only made themselves evident to him when it suited them, had decided to play with the writing on the page.

Most of the reasons Arthur's spells would go wrong would never be his fault. He followed the instructions to the letter. It was just that, well his magical friends liked to tweak his spells so that they did different things, but were more fun to watch.

Obviously for this reason the spell did indeed not go as he'd planned, despite following the instructions to the letter. In fact, the spell seemed not to do anything at all; then again maybe he'd have to actually be with Yao for it to work. He wasn't sure.

What he didn't know is that he'd performed a gender switching spell. His magical friends always liked to play pranks like this, or body switching spells were also entertaining to them. Either way, the spell would only come to affect after midnight, as that was how it worked, and so with that the next day, a fair few nations would wake up to something different.

Shaking his head, Arthur went back to bed. It would be a silly assumption to think that he'd feel any different straight away. He walked back up the stairs and crawled back into bed beside Yao, who'd let down his hair, and it fanned out on his pillow and some fell onto his face, crisscrossing dark strands.

In the morning, Leon woke up feeling better. The hangover from before had worn off now. Something seemed to be tangled around him though, and it was getting irritating. His sleepy mind couldn't think of any particular reason, so he continued to sleep, on top of Emil, like he usually did. He didn't aim to swamp the Icelander, but it still always seemed to happen.

It took him another moment, to notice something else that was wrong. He felt Emil's chest beneath one of his hands, and admittedly and much to Emil's disliking, his chest was soft anyway, but this was a whole other level of soft.

This startled him enough to sit up over Emil, looking down at her? Leon looked down at the girl he'd been sleeping on. She had pale skin like Emil, and medium length tangled white hair. Her face was similar to Emil's except a little softer, and rounder. Her body, well it was definitely that of a woman. Her shirt was tight over her chest, and had ridden up in her sleep a little to show the curve of her waist and hips. No doubt, this was a woman.

Leon ran his hand through his hair, trying to think about what was happening, and was surprised when at the base of his neck, where usually his hair would stop, it didn't. He pulled the strands to look at them for himself, and oh lord that was a lot of hair. It looked like it'd come to his waist. Did that mean that he was a she? That was weird.

Leon rolled off the bed, and walked over to the tall mirror in Emil's room. His face was softer and rounder like Emil's had been, and his arms and legs looked a little less muscled. He brought his hands to feel his chest, and although softer than before, it was still, well slightly disappointingly small. He also noticed his hips seemed wider, his boxer shorts feeling a little tight on them. He dared look down there, and oh god; that was not what he was used to seeing.

This was weird, so, so weird. Leon decided to wake Emil up, or at least he was hoping it would be Emil. He shook the girl on his bed whispering "Emil, wake up…" noticing that his voice was definitely higher in pitch than before.

Emil's eyes opened blearily, before widening at the girl who was over him, her hair falling around her face and hanging over her own "Mei?" he questioned. She didn't look quite like Mei, but who else would it be.

Leon's expression was serious "Guess again." He, or she, or Leon hadn't decided if he was okay with this, but to make it easier, he'd stick to 'he', because this would be over soon.

Emil cleared his throat, but his voice came out high again "I don't know, it's early.." he muttered, rubbing his face and sitting up. The girl leaning over him was wearing Leon's clothes, and her face was similar, but more… feminine "Oh god…"

"You're catching on?" Leon asked "Take a look in the mirror…" he told him, shuffling off of the bed.

With a grunt, Emil rolled off the bed, and stood before the full body mirror, his eyes widening in shock, and his mouth unable to form words "That… that is a woman… Oh god that hair is coming off; I won't ever get a brush though all that…" he said, slight despair in his tone.

"You think it's everyone or just us?" Leon asked "This is so weird… what words do we even use? Like should I say he or she? I'm confuse…" he said, not sure if he should refer to himself as herself instead, but seeing as she still felt like a 'he' maybe not? This was complicated and weird.

"I really don't know, to either." Emil said still staring at himself in disbelief "Wow… I always wondered what I'd look like as a woman, but wow… just wow… look at the size of my boobs." he said, running his hands over them "That's like… huge, right?"

Leon looked at his own chest, which was mostly flat, with small amounts of not particularly visible breast tissue "Yeah… massive." he said, feeling slight envy towards Emil. Why did Emil always get the best pick "This is so weird? For practicality's sake I'm just gonna stay Leon… just Leon in a girl's body. For now, It might be interesting, right?"

"Yeah, and this should wear off, right?" Emil reasoned.

"So, why don't we make a thing out of this, y'know, go buy cute clothes, and do girl stuff?" she said "From now on, my name is Li, and I might as well have fun with this." He said.

"I'll go with Emily then…" He said, nodding "So long as it's not for long, I guess it's harmless, right?"

"Yeah, so long as it's not for too long, I don't think I mind too much." Leon said nodding "I'm pretty hungry, so let's go downstairs."

"Gimmie a sec, I'm gonna take this shirt off." Emil said, unbuttoning it "I couldn't breathe…" he explained, sighing in relief as he took it off, exposing his breasts. Leon couldn't help but stare, everything was telling him 'look away' 'look away' but he just  _couldn't._ Leon had never seen a pair like that in person and wow. Just wow "Hey, do you mind!" Emil exclaimed after a moment, turning around "Jeez, would it kill you not to stare?"

"Oh, yes, right, sorry." He said, turning around. Leon didn't bother with changing shirt, if anything it was looser on his chest, as before it fitted his muscles, and he liked to be relatively loose fitting, but Emil was a different case. He in general seemed more curvaceous. Leon assumed it was something to do with women carrying more fat than men, either way he didn't mind. To be honest, she was a little put out by how scrawny he seemed in comparison.

After Emil changed into a better fitting t-shirt he nodded and walked out of the room "God, they just bounce as I walk…"he commented, huffing "How do women put up with this?" he asked, making gestures towards his now relatively ample bosom.

"I wouldn't know." Leon answered honestly "There's less there for me." he told Emil "I think all my boobs went into hair…"

"Yeah, that's like… down to your ass…" he said "You always have nicer hair than me…"

"Yours looks like it's nesting a small bird." Leon commented, walking into the kitchen to see the rest of the Nordics already assembled.

Matthias's hair was still short for some reason, and he was still relatively muscled, but had some curves and a decently sized chest. Lukas had longer hair, and looked slim, like one of those models on TV. Tino had shortish hair and a rather ample bosom, Li thought. He was probably the most rounded out, but it suited him… it looked motherly, in his opinion. Then there was Berwald who looked awkward more than anything. He was slim, but lankier than Lukas, and also had a relatively sizeable chest. Actually Emil's was probably the smallest, and that seemed like such a weird concept, because her chest seemed pretty huge, in Li's opinion.

Matthias greeted the two of them loudly "You guys too, huh?" he asked, patting the table beside him that had a couple of extra spaces beside him with plates "Tino's making toast." he told them, "Or _Tina~_  " she chided in a slight singsong voice "God this is weird… and yet I am not disappointed at all." She told them, groping herself shamelessly, before having her hands slapped by Lukas

"Could you  _not_  grope yourself in front of everyone else?" she snarled, frowning "Just because you have the body of a woman now, doesn't mean you can use it for the wrong reasons…" She said.

Matthias rolled her eyes "Come  _on_  Lukas, feminism is about having the  _whole_ pie… not just one piece…"

"This is nothing to do with feminism, Matthias." She said "All this is, is you being impolite and vulgar…"

"Now now…" Tino said after a moment "Let's just try to get on with things. We'll all need some new clothes I think…" she reasoned "So we should all go shopping together, and when this is over, we can look back on it and laugh."

The others nodded, not wanting to argue. Tino walked around with toast, giving everyone a couple of slices. There was already butter on a dish on the table "Cheers~" Matthias said, starting to butter his toast first, wolfing his down with gusto. Lukas followed suit, but in a more polite manner. Leon was the last to start eating, which was unusual for him, but he wasn't feeling so good, and he felt like he was in a house full of complete strangers.

Emil turned to look at him "Hey, you okay?" he asked "Sorry about my family… they're weird…"

"No, no, it's fine… My stomach is just being unsettled…" to told Emil, taking smallish bites of toast "I don't even feel that hungry right now…"

"Wow… someone call a doctor, Leon Wang isn't hungry…" he said, with slight mock sarcasm, but a small amount of actual concern too "It's probably just the shock of like… suddenly turning into a woman overnight."

"Yeah, probably just that." He nodded "Still… it's like I ate bad fish, ow…"

"Damn…" Emil shrugged a little, deciding to rub Leon's back gently "Wow, it's weird… Matthias got to keep some of his muscle, but yours is like… gone…" he commented, feeling how much less muscular Leon's back was.

"Yeah, but Matthias was like  _muscular_  I wasn't quite as much as he was." Leon told him "Shame… I've got to give Mei more credit for this…" he added, leaning against Emil.

Matthias whistled at them "Little love birds~" he smirked to himself, receiving a jab in his side from Lukas's elbow.

"Leon says he doesn't feel well." Emil told them, huffing, a blush creeping onto his face "So just shut up…"

"Maybe pick up something for it at the pharmacy?" Tino suggested, patting Leon's shoulder, as he was sat next to him "It's probably just left over from yesterday."

"Yeah probably…" he mumbled quietly. He definitely wasn't feeling that good.

Emil frowned, tangling his fingers in Leon's newly grown long hair. Leon really didn't seem like his usual self. Agreed, yes, he was never the most talkative, or smiley person, but he was never down like this either, most of the time. Maybe it was left over bad feelings from the day before, or something along those lines. Or maybe it was hormones, as he was in a girl's body now. Either way, it was weird to see him like this.

"Hey, Tino?" Matthias started, a slightly obnoxious grin on his face "What bra size are you~"

"None of your business, Matthias." Tino huffed a little, getting a little tired of Matthias's attitude.

"No, but seriously, they're pretty huge, man, they've gotta be like… double Gs or something~" he laughed.

"Could you not." He huffed again, feeling frustration starting to seethe. Berwald stroked his back, becoming irritated by the Dane as well, but trying not to take any notice. He'd figure out a way to get back at him later on. Maybe he'd 'accidentally' push him over, or just 'accidentally' drink the last beer. It was totally justified.

"Oh, don't get sensitive now…" Matthias said, pouting playfully at him "I think it suits you, the whole look is very motherly~"

"Matthias, I asked you to stop," Tino started "One more word, and I will punch you straight in the mouth."

"Yeah, if you can catch me~" Matthias laughed, before springing up from the table, and running out of the room, skidding down the hall and running up the stairs, or so everyone assumed, because they could hear the loud thudding of feet up the staircase.

Tino stood up and marched out of the room, his hands clenched into fists "I swear to god, Matthias!" he shouted up the stairs, before walking up them, following the sounds of Matthias giggling and hiding in his own bedroom.

"Even Buddha tires at being poked a third time…" Leon mused to himself. Most people in his house were more hot headed than Tino, so he wasn't surprised really.

"I guess that's one way to look at it…" Emil said, with an exasperated sight.

"I'm sorry about that…" Lukas told Leon "Berwald, would you mind making sure that Tino doesn't make any real damage to Matthias? Let him get a few punches, but pull him away after the Dane's learned his lesson.

Berwald nodded "G'd idea" he said, standing from the table and walking up to the room he heard the most noise from. He was greeted with a both usual, and unusual sight. He was used to seeing them fighting, but not used to seeing them as women, fighting.

Tino had Matthias pinned against the bed, a fist pulled back ready to strike "Say that again." He told him, seething with anger.

"Look, look~" he said, grinning "I know you're not going to hurt me~ You're too motherly to do that~" Really he should have known when a good time to stand down was, but Matthias was bad at reading the mood a lot of the time.

"That's it! I'm sick of you taking me for granted! I try being nice, but you just have to push it!" he yelled, punching Matthias across the face, who was still grinning.

"You punch pretty hard for a girl~" Matthias laughed.

Before he could land another punch, Berwald took hold of Tino's wrist "'S not w'rth it, Tino…" he said, pulling him away from the Dane.

"He started it though…" Tino complained "He doesn't know when to shut up. He's gloating right now, I can tell. I can tell!"

"I know." He said tugging him out of the room "He's being ann'ying on purp'se." Berwald told him.

"I know, I know…" Tino said, calming down already "He just gets me so riled sometimes…" He said, leaning into the other "I  _am_  trying with him… Most of the time it's fine y'know? It's just other times I want to punch him in his stupid face…" he explained honestly to him.

"Don't w'rry about 't" Berwald said "I th'nk we wll feel like th't s'mtimes."

"You're probably right…" Tino nodded, hugging him "It's so weird hugging you like this…" he said "It feels different… but not bad different…"

Back downstairs, Lukas was staring at both Leon and Emil, scrutinising them with his eyes "I get the feeling this was your old guardian's doing…" he told Leon, glaring slightly.

"I get that feeling too." He said "He never learns…"

"That is indeed true." Lukas nodded in agreement "I do hope it wears off soon… I feel out of place like this… still short term it has perks, but I wouldn't want to stay like this."

"I guess that's how transgender people feel?" Emil asked, hoping it was about right "Like even if you're in the body of a woman, you feel like you should really be in a man's one, or vice versa, right?"

Lukas nodded "Seems so…"

Matthias walked into the room after a few moments of silence "Wow, who killed the party?" he asked, his cheek starting to bruise a little "We got any frozen peas?"

"In the freezer, you big idiot…" Lukas told him, rolling his eyes "Why can't you just  _not_  provoke people?"

"I dunno; I just thought it was funny I guess…" he said pulling a bag of frozen peas out of the freezer "I guess I didn't know when to stop." He laughed a little "There won't be any hard feelings by tomorrow, it's cool" he said, patting Lukas's shoulder.

Lukas rolled his eyes "Come on, let's go shopping… I'll call Tino and Berwald down. We can take the car together." He said.

Leon and Emil stood from their seats, and decided they'd change into something better instead of underwear.

**Okay, end of this chapter, but another soon to follow! Any out of character things that have or will happen will mostly just be due to the fact that everyone is all really rather confused, and their hormones will be different, and so sometimes they may act differently due to this. I know this is all pretty weird, but I like it, and this is all based on an rp. Also I know I jump around a lot, and end up following different characters, but again, that's just how I roll, and how I like to write. You watch Hetalia, so you should be used to jump scenes.**

**QUESTION TIME:**

**How will Yao react in the morning?**

**How long will it take for everyone to return back to normal?**

**What will happen while everyone is shopping?**

**How will unresolved issues become resolved?**

**What's eating at Leon?**


	8. A day out

**I'll try and update this more quickly, but I do have a lot of homework to do, and a lot of art for my ask blogs to do, so I apologize for any slowness in updating. But I really am trying to get motivated, so chances are, the more good reviews I get, the more I'll want to update quickly!**

Once they were ready, the six of them got into the car. Tino was driving, sat beside Berwald. Lukas and Matthias were sat on the middle row, and Leon and Emil were sat at the back of the people carrier "Couldn't we just take two cars…" Emil grumbled "I hate sitting in this car, it's stuffy."

"We're not taking two cars when we have one that will do the job, Emil." Lukas told him, looking back at them "It'd be less efficient."

"We're countries." Emil complained "We can teleport…"

"Yes, but if we just so happen to appear in a shopping centre, wouldn't that look weird? Also, people would wonder how we just got there, and how we left. It's a security issue." Lukas continued, thought Emil had stopped listening "Honestly, Emil…" he muttered, leaning his head back against the headrest "What are you giggling at?" he looked across to Matthias who was giggling to himself.

"Whenever we go over a bump, everyone's boobs bounce~" he declared, still giggling to himself. Lukas glared at him, crossing his arms over his chest "I can't help that it's funny…" he pouted at Lukas's reaction "It's just so weird, y'know?"

"Please, for the love of God, learn some tact, Matthias… This is embarrassing enough as it is." Lukas told him, huffing. He'd have hit him or set his troll on him, but his arms were busy, and his troll didn't like being inside cars.

"Is it embarrassing though?" Matthias asked innocently "I mean we're all in the same boat."

"Yes, that may be so, but some of us are obviously less comfortable than others." Lukas told him, looking out of the window as they approached the shopping centre. And awkward silence passed over the car for a minute, as Tino parked.

"Okay, so we'll probably want to split up." Tino said, turning to look at the others "So, let's agree to be back here in two hours' time, and if you're not back, one of us will call you." He told them all "Just buy enough to get by, because hopefully, this won't last too long."

They all nodded, glad to have some privacy between themselves, and got out of the car.

Meanwhile Yao was slowly waking up to a face full of blonde hair. Opening his eyes more fully, he saw a woman sleeping beside him. He exclaimed loudly in Chinese, scrambling away from her. This caused her to wake up, her eyes widening, seeing the other scrambling off the bed.

"Who are you!?" they both exclaimed, almost in unison, mouths open and gaping.

"No, you first! Where is Arthur!?" Yao demanded. His voice felt oddly high, but he ignored it, as he had a more pressing matter to deal with, like this woman sneaking into his bed where Arthur should have been.

"I  _am_  Arthur! Who the bloody hell are you!?" at this Yao gaped even more. This woman was claiming to be Arthur.

"I'm Yao!" he exclaimed, feeling like this was going in circles "Arthur is no woman!"

"I'm not a woman!"

"You could have fooled me!

"Wait, what!?" Arthur scrambled out of the bed to look at himself in the mirror, and to his utter shock and astonishment, there stood a woman in the reflection, with a horrified expression on her face "What on earth!?" he exclaimed, looking down at himself

"I told you!" Yao told him again.

"Well you look like a woman too!" Arthur told Yao, pushing him in front of the mirror, to see a petite woman, looking horrified.

"This was your doing, wasn't it?" Yao glared at him.

"No, what on earth made you think that!?" the Englishman defended himself quickly "Look, it'll probably wear off, why don't we just make this as fun as possible?"

"What's fun about this!? I want my body back!"

"Yes, yes, I do too…"

After a lot of bickering, and Yao spending roughly an hour trying to get Arthur's hair to look reasonable, they finally got out of the house, and into the car, agreeing that they both needed some clothes.

Many nations were already at the shopping centre, as they'd recently had a meeting so close by. Leon and Emil almost mistook Lili, and Vash, but considering their expressions were so different, they noticed relatively quickly. They also came across some rather confused looking Baltics, a very tall Michelle, at one point they were sure one woman they saw looked like Francis, but they weren't certain.

Both Leon and Emil spent a while in each shop they went to, browsing through the latest styles, and trying things on "I guess there's something cool about all this~" Leon said, walking out of the changing room with an arm full of clothes.

"Yeah?" Emil eyed all the clothes, wondering how one person could afford all of that.

"People won't give me weird looks for wearing skirts in public now." Leon smirked slightly, walking over to pay for his clothes.

The truth was, a nation's money reflected how much money they had as a country, meaning Leon had an awful lot of money, whereas Emil had very little. Often Lukas, being one of the richest Europeans, would often help him out, with some extra cash here and there, if he needed it.

"Yeah… You know it's not permanent, right? I mean you're buying a lot of clothes…" Emil said, looking at him questioningly.

"When I stop wearing them, I'll give them to Mei." He told him "She hasn't got as much money as me, but she likes nice things." Leon continued "It wouldn't really be fair not to think of her…"

"I thought you didn't get on?" Emil questioned, remembering how much the two of them seemed to tease each other and argue with each other.

"Of course we do." He said "We like fighting, it makes things interesting, but it doesn't really  _mean_  anything. If I really didn't like her, I just wouldn't talk to her." Leon explained.

"Oh… I guess that makes sense." Emil nodded "So… I think that's everything, right?"

"Pretty much… Could we hit the drug shop before we go back to the car though?" Leon asked "I think I ate something bad, and I want to get some pain killers."

"Uh, yeah sure." Emil nodded, shrugging "We have time."

The two of them walked across the courtyard, briefly catching the eyes of a couple of very familiar women. A moment later, Leon dragged Emil into the shop quickly, wanting to avoid them. When the Icelander asked for an explanation, he didn't get one.

Yao and Arthur had noticed Leon running into the shop, and decided to follow him, to try to resolve things "You think he even wants to see us?" Arthur rolled his eyes, walking with Yao into the shop.

"No, and that's the point." Yao insisted.

"I'm… not following." The Englishman said, questioningly "If he doesn't want to see us… why are we following him?"

"Because I want to stop all this drama." Yao told him, pulling him around, looking for Leon.

Leon was desperately trying to avoid them. He wanted nothing more than to just leave as soon as he could, because he really wasn't feeling very good. Just as he finished paying for his pain relief, Yao spotted him again, calling him over.

Much to Emil's exasperation, and displeasure, Leon started to run away. Emil could see many problems with the way Leon was facing this problem. For one, he wasn't facing it at all, secondly, he wouldn't be able to run forever, and thirdly, he'd end up getting himself lost, and that was never a good thing.

Yao ran after him, knowing that eventually Leon would have to stop and slow down.

Leon was struggling to hold himself together. Usually he could pretty well. He wasn't usually the one to outwardly show much emotion, unless he was drunk, but for the second day in a row, he found himself on the brink of tears. He ran into a public restroom, and shut himself into a stall, sitting on the closed lid of a toilet, bringing his knees up to his chest, and resting his face in them.

He wasn't sure how much more pathetic it got than this. He was hiding in a ladies bathroom, and it smelled, and it was cold, and poorly lit, and dingy. He couldn't help but think about how angry and upset he was. Years of trying to ignore it, and accepting that the two people who raised him wouldn't get on, was crumbling. Surely he was meant to feel good about them getting close to each other, but he didn't. He just remembered every harsh word spoken, every bitter insult, every fight, and the day that without warning, or even being told what was happening, Yao just handed him over.

He could remember seeing Yao with battle scars, and he remembered when he was young, Arthur coming home after months, with cuts and bruises, spewing words of hate about the man Leon had respected so much.

He remembered when he was finally given back, and he'd been expecting greatness, and everything he'd remembered from before, but that wasn't what he came back to. He felt so betrayed by him, and the decisions he'd made, and at the time, he shrugged it off. He was glad to be relatively independent, but it stuck with him. Yao was embarrassing. He did things that made him look bad, smog from his country would move over his city. All this anger and frustration, and emotion was rearing its head.

Leon heard a door open, but stayed where he was. The door to the stall was locked. He'd stay there until Yao left, or until he could at least stop crying. This wasn't how he was meant to deal with things. He was meant to keep everything, and keep a stiff upper lip, not letting anyone know just how he felt, being unreadable was something he was good at, but right now, he just couldn't stop himself from sobbing.

"Leon… I know you're in here…" Yao started to say in Chinese, one so that if he was overheard, people wouldn't understand him, but also because he favoured the language and so did Leon. Leaning against the door, he spoke again "I saw you run in… Please talk to me... Could you tell me why you're so upset with me at least?" he tried, leaning his head against the cold door of the stall, sighing "It's not like you to be like this, Leon… please just tell me what's wrong… I hate to see you like this."

Leon stayed silent, trying to ignore him, hugging his knees tighter.

"If it's something I've done… I'll try to fix it…" Yao continued "I was never meaning for you to be upset, Leon… Please come out, and talk to me… Things won't be like they were before, you know… people change. You used to smile… Why don't you smile for me anymore? You don't even go by the same name as you used to… Do you hate me?"

"No…" Leon mumbled quietly, through the sobs. Of course he didn't  _hate_  Yao. He could never hate Yao, he was just angry, and upset, and he felt betrayed, and confused, but he never hated him.

"Leon, please come out… We can go home, and just talk things over…" Yao could feel tears prickle in his eyes. He'd not even realized there was a problem. Leon always seemed so together, and self-assured, so what was this?

After a long while of coaxing, Leon finally stepped out of the stall, his face red and blotchy from crying, with wet streaks from tears. Wordlessly, Yao pulled him into a hug, holding him closely. God, he hated seeing Leon cry like this. He couldn't even remember the last time he got this upset. He stroked his long hair with one hand, noticing how his frame was smaller than before, and softer to hug "You too, huh…." Yao said after a moment, trying to smile.

"Hm?" Leon kept his face in Yao's shoulder, probably making it quite wet with tears.

"You got turned into a girl too…" He said, still stroking Leon's hair, pulling away from the hug for a moment "Why don't we go home and talk, okay?" Yao wiped Leon's cheeks with his thumbs, trying to dry his tears.

Leon nodded quietly "Yeah… okay…" He pulled out his phone and messaged Emil: im go home. C u

He wasn't trying to use obnoxious text talk, he just found English hard to write and he couldn't think much about spelling at that point in time. Emil would understand him.

Yao put a hand behind his back and guided Leon to the car, sending a text to Arthur 'I found him. I'll talk to you tomorrow.'

Emil and Arthur, who'd been sitting outside the drug shop for the past half hour or so, looked at their phones, mumbled a goodbye, and left in opposite directions to go home.

Once Leon and Yao were back at the house, the elder sat Leon down on the sofa, and sat beside him "Okay, talk to me." Yao said, looking directly at him "Tell me why you're so upset…"

"I just…" Leon wasn't even sure where he was meant to start "You're not meant… to get on." He said, not sure how to explain it "You're not meant to like each other…"

"Why's that?" he asked, rubbing the other's back.

"Because when you do… one of you will get hurt… and you'll fight, and-"

"You're not going to get hurt this time, Leon…" Yao told him "And wouldn't it be better that we won't fight so much?"

"No! You're both too different!" he exclaimed, raking his fingers though his hair "You're  _going_  to get hurt."

"You don't  _know_  that… and we have a lot of things in common too…" Yao tried to explain "Look, if it doesn't work out, we've agreed there won't be any bad feelings… But, don't you want me to be happy?"

"You know Kiku has a thing for you, right?"

"What, no he doesn't…" Yao said quickly "And I'm not interested in him anyway."

"No, you like unfriendly Europeans…"

"I don't think you can talk, Leon…" Yao smirked.

"That's different…"

"Leon, please just… don't be upset at me for this. I know things with the two of us have been bad before… and I know it's hurt you… but please… just let me have this, okay?"

"Fine… but if it goes wrong, don't cry on me…" he mumbled, before taking some pain killer out of his bag.

"What's that for?"

"I think I ate something bad…" he said, taking a couple of the tablets "I dunno, my stomach's just not happy… and my back hurts, and I'm not sure why…"

"Right… well… You should talk to Mei about that." He said, suddenly feeling awkward.

"Why..?"

"Because she knows more about it than me." Yao told him "Don't question me."

Leon gave Yao a questioning look, before standing up and walking up to Mei's bedroom, and knocking on the door "Hey, can I come in?"

"Who is it, and why?" he heard a deeper voice than he would have expected from her, he assumed she'd been affected too.

"It's Leon, and it's because Yao sent me." He said, leaning against the door.

"Don't laugh… okay?" She asked, hesitantly.

"So long as you don't laugh at me, we're cool…" he said, rolling his eyes, he just wanted to know what Yao wanted him to know, and why Mei was the person to ask out of all the people he could possibly ask.

"Okay… I'm opening the door…" she said slowly, letting him into the room, the both of them staring at each other for a short while "Wow, okay… What do you want?"

"I don't know, Yao said to come to you… My insides feel like I ate something bad, and stuff aches and whatever, and that kind of sucks…" Leon explained, shrugging "I don't know why he thought you would be the one to ask about this, because he's all keen on medicines and stuff."

"Ooh… I see…" she said slowly, a small smirk forming on her face.

"What, why are you smiling at me all of a sudden?" he asked, suddenly feeling rather concerned "I feel like suddenly I should be worrying."

Mei paused for a moment, looking at Leon's face "Wait a minute… Have you been crying?" she asked him, looking concerned for a moment. Though, if he had, it would confirm the situation further for her.

"Uuh… no…" he lied, feeling like crying wasn't something he should admit to, because it was totally not manly at all to cry, and he especially wasn't going to admit it to a sibling.

"Right…" she said, not believing him for a second, but not wanting to push him, because that would be a little  _too_  mean "Well, and you're probably not going to like what you hear…" she told him "Do you know anything about the uh… female reproductive system?" she asked.

"Oh my god, am I pregnant!?" he exclaimed, looking down at himself in slight terror.

"What!? No! No, you're like the opposite of pregnant!" she exclaimed quickly, before starting to explain things to him.

Once she'd finished explaining, he just sat there in horror at what he'd heard "That's not fair…"

"No, no It's not, Leon, but that's life." She nodded her head in a knowing manner "I'll just give you some of my supplies, so you don't have to try and buy things, because you'll only do it wrong, knowing you…" she told him, looking through her drawer, and handing him a box "Have fun."

Leon looked at the box in scrutiny, reading the instructions slowly, because they were in English, before looking at her, almost begging her to end his torment, before it really began.

"Sorry, Leon~" was all she said. As much sympathy as she had for him, she was a little pleased that he had to experience this, because perhaps it would help to give him some perspective.

He stood up and walked out, to go and follow the instructions on the box, before curling up on his bed, and texting Emil: U will never ges wat. HK

He received a text back soon after: You're getting spelling lessons? Ice

:Ew no, google periods. HK

:Uhhh… okay? Ice

:Oh shit, are you okay, man? Ice

: I fel lik im diing. HK

: Want me to come over? Ice

: Yes, bring icecrem. HK

: I'll be over in ten. Ice

Leon stared at his phone screen, waiting for the ten minutes to pass for Emil to get there, laying curled up on his bed. He felt something after a moment, before shuddering, and grimacing. So it had begun… He was not accustomed to this feeling, nor did he ever want to be. This was like some kind of twisted hell designed to make him as uncomfortable as possible.

Emil arrived fifteen agonizing minutes later, walking into the room "You like cookie dough, right?" he asked, before sitting on the bed beside him.

Leon looked up to see Emil. Never had he been happier to see him, even if he had the appearance of a woman. He moved to nuzzle his head onto the other's lap. Emil smiled a little bit, petting Leon's hair, of which there was much more of now "So, you're gonna have to sit up if you want icecream…" Emil said slowly, patting his back a bit.

Leon sat up after that, grumbling quietly, before taking the icecream and eating it, leaning against Emil as he did. Emil eyed the icecream hungrily; he had been hoping Leon would share with him, but he didn't seem to be very interested in the idea of sharing. Emil sighed, before poking Leon's side a couple of times "I want some too…" he told the other, grumbling as he did.

"Fine fine…" Leon said, offering the other a spoonful.

"I can hold the spoon myself, you dick." Emil said, trying to take the spoon from the Asian.

"My icecream, my rules." Leon argued back, easily keeping the spoon from him.

"Ugh… Fine." Emil finally gave up, groaning as he did so "But you're a total dick."

"I'm okay with that." Leon told him, feeding him the icecream "Because like… I'm your total dick." He smirked, because he could tell Emil wanted to say something back, but his mouth was full of icecream, and anything he said, would now be poorly timed, and lose affect.

Emil just huffed, finishing his mouthful "Whatever."

**Bam! And so concludes this chapter! I'm sorry that I've not been frequently updating! I'm going to try and update more frequently, as I'll have a lot of free time over the exam period, and I think if I don't write any fan fiction when I'm revising, I'll just lose my mind! Either way, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I love getting reviews, as they just seriously make my day, and I love hearing suggestions about the story, because it helps me with ideas! I should say that I do know roughly where this story is going, and I have a lot of plot planned out, but that's not to say that I would object to anything you could suggest to me about what could happen!**

**Question time:**

**Who knew that countries could teleport? Apparently they can. Apparently it was mentioned in the comic at some point? Who knew right~**

**What's going to happen between Yao and Arthur now?**

**What's happening with the other Asians?**

**When will the spell be reversed?**

**What is it with Yao and Leon liking unfriendly Europeans?**


End file.
